The rise of China is the top news story of the decade followed by the Iraq War, the 9/11 attacks and the death of Michael Jackson, according to an analysis by a group that studies word usage.
Completing the top 10 are the war on terror (former president George W Bush's response to 9/11), the election of Barack Obama as US President, the global recession, Hurricane Katrina, the war in Afghanistan, and the onset of the financial tsunami.
Rounding out the list prepared by the Global Language Monitor are the Beijing Olympics, the South Asian tsunami, the war against Taliban, the death of Pope John Paul II and Osama bin-Laden eluding capture.
"The rise of China to new economic heights has changed and continues to challenge the current international order," says GLM's chief word analyst Paul J J Payack.
"It is with little surprise that its ongoing transformation has topped all other news stories in a decade bespotted by war, economic catastrophe, and natural disasters," he says.
The analysis was completed on December 1 using GLM's predictive quantities indicator, the proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet, now including blogs and social media.
The words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity.
The analysis factored in the number of citations over the course of the decade on the Internet, the blogosphere, including social media, as well as the top 50,000 print and electronic media sites.
GLM has recently named global warming, 9/11, Obama, bailout, evacuee, Google, Chinglish and tsunami as the top words of the decade.