{"id":92095,"date":"2026-05-05T07:47:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T06:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=92095"},"modified":"2026-05-05T07:47:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T06:47:57","slug":"word-of-the-day-sonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/05\/05\/word-of-the-day-sonder\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the day: sonder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I came across a new word this weekend. It is sonder.<\/p>\n<p>Sonder is the profound, and humbling, realisation that every random passerby is living a life as vivid, complex, and populated with their own ambitions and struggles as your own. Coined by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedictionaryofobscuresorrows.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Koenig<\/a> in 2012, it describes the awareness that you are not the only \"main character\" in the world.<\/p>\n<p>While sonder is a neologism (a newly coined word), it is closely related to concepts like empathy. And that is the whole point. We, all of us, have been told by hegemonic neoliberal narratives that what matters most in the world is us. And I do not doubt our own significance. But the \"other\" people in life - whoever they might be - are just as important, and it is this fact which neoliberalism, fascists and all on the right wing of politics, whether they be Reform, Tory, Restore or Labour, seek to deny.<\/p>\n<p>Sonder reminds us of this essential fact that we are one of many, and all are of equal value. It is a word worth knowing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came across a new word this weekend. It is sonder. Sonder is the profound, and humbling, realisation that every random passerby is living a<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/05\/05\/word-of-the-day-sonder\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92102,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92095\/revisions\/92102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}