It’s that time of the year again! The Van Dale dictionary has chosen graaiflatie as the 2023 Dutch word of the year.
Graaiflatie comes from the Dutch words graai and inflatie, combining the two words meaning grab (as in greedy) and inflation — “grabflation”, if you will.
According to the Van Dale dictionary, the term refers to “inflation fuelled by activities that excessively charge the cost increase of raw materials, means of production and labour to the consumer to maintain or increase their profits.”
Yep, sounds pretty infuriating to us.
READ MORE | The cost of living in the Netherlands in 2023
Think of KLM increasing ticket prices for passengers to offset new taxes on flights or supermarkets offering smaller products for the same price.
Unfortunately, this year “grabflation” is everywhere, so it’s no wonder it’s so popular. 🙄
The nominees
Competition was tough this year, but there’s nothing more fitting for 2023 than extortionate grocery bills.
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Going head-to-head with nine other words, graaiflatie won a whopping 65% of the vote, reports RTL Nieuws.
Curious about the top 10 words in the Netherlands this year? Take a look:
| Rank | Word |
| 1 | Graaiflatie (grabflation) |
| 2 | Vreugdebier (joy beer) |
| 3 | Nepobaby (nepo baby) |
| 4 | Bestuursschaamte (administrative shame) |
| 5 | Hittefit (Heat fit) |
| 6 | Sportfluencer (sport’s influencer) |
| 7 | TikTokjustitie (TikTok justice) |
| 8 | Treitertaks (Harraser tax) |
| 9 | Wokewashing |
| 10 | X’en |
What do you think of 2023’s Dutch word of the year? Tell us in the comments!