London, Nov. 24 (Reuters): David Cameron’s “big society” has been named the Oxford Dictionaries phrase of the year in Britain, beating strong candidates like “vuvuzela,” “double-dip” and “Boris bike.”

The official meaning is: “A political concept whereby a significant amount of responsibility for the running of a society’s services is devolved to local communities and volunteers.”

Cameron said in July: “The big society is about liberation — the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street.” Some may have had difficulty grasping quite what the concept amounts to and others have openly mocked it, but Oxford Dictionaries was in no doubt.

“Big society was for us a clear winner because it embraces so much of the year's political and economic mood,” said Susie Dent, spokeswoman for Oxford Dictionaries and language expert on Channel 4’s Countdown programme.

The word of the year award does not necessarily mean inclusion in the dictionary. “We always wait to see good evidence that a word or expression will stay the course before we include it in an Oxford dictionary,” said Dent.