At the end of last year we asked you to help pick our Alcohol-Free Word of the Year for 2025. We gave you four expressions that are being increasingly used in and around AF, and asked you to select the one that you think has the most resonance.
You voted in large numbers - and now we’ve totted up the count and discovered a clear winner. 
By some distance our Word of the Year for 2024 is…
Zebra-striping: (vb) The process of drinking alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink alternately on the same occasion as a way of moderating intake.
It picked up 47% of the votes, almost twice as many as the nearest contender which was…
Free-form: (adj) Alcohol-free drinks which do not have an alcoholic equivalent. This term found favour with 27% of you.
The final two terms garnered 13% of the votes each.
Double-listing: (n) The practice of listing alcohol-free drinks in both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic sections of a drinks list.
Damp: (adj) Drinks consumption behaviour which is largely dry but occasionally still includes alcohol.
‘Zebra-striping is one of those terms that you don’t understand at all the first time you hear it, but once it’s been explained to you it instantly makes sense,’ said World Alcohol-Free Awards director, Chris Losh. ‘It’s amusing, catchy and - most importantly - totally in tune with the new way that lots of people drink.’
For WAFA’s head of judging, Chrissie Parkinson, this year’s vote marks something of a step change in the world of alcohol-free.
‘It’s very interesting that all the short-listed words relate to how we consume alcohol-free drinks,’ she said. ‘A couple of years ago, it was all about the names of the drinks themselves.’
A new expression to describe a (mostly) new behaviour, we’re excited to celebrate Zebra-striping as our Alcohol-Free Word of the Year for 2025!

(Photo by PxHere)