Boston (MA) - Online lingo enthusiasts have a new reason to say "w00t" this year, as the Merriam-Webster dictionary elected the monosyllabic expression of joy as the word of 2007.

While it is not yet an entry at Webster.com, the dictionary publisher defined it as an expression similar to the word "yay".  "It could be after a triumph or for no reason at all," said Webster.

The word is typically spelled with two zeros in the middle to denote the letter "O".  "People look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A.  This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character," said Merriam-Webster president John Morse.

The word was chosen based on votes from users who went to Merriam-Webster's website.  There were 20 words or phrases up for the title.  Facebook, used as a verb to denote searching for someone on the social networking site, came in second place.