Neutral pronoun 'they' has been voted word of the decade by US language experts, beating out other contenders.&nbsp;<br />” <br />” &quot;They&quot; is used in English by a growing number of non-binary individuals, people who do not identify as either male or female. They prefer the plural neutral pronoun to bypass using the pronouns &quot;he&quot; or &quot;she&quot;.<br />” <br />” Ben Zimmer, head of the American Dialect Society, said that selection of &quot;they&quot; is an indication that how a personal expression of gender identity has become an increasing part of our shared discourse.<br />” <br />” The recognition comes after US dictionary Merriam-Webster in December named &quot;they&quot; as word of the year.<br />” <br />” The American Dialect Society had previously named &quot;they&quot; word of the year in 2015.<br />”<br />” Other contenders in the decade category included #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, climate, emoji, meme, opioid crisis and woke.&nbsp;The 131-year-old American Dialect Society includes linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, grammarians, historians, researchers, writers, editors, students and scholars.<br />” &nbsp;