‘Selfie’ has been named the word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries.

The editors said the decision was unanimous, calling the term a "runaway winner" after its usage rose 17,000% since January, driven by celebrities and social media.

The word dates back to 2002, said Oxford Dictionaries, but began to gain prominence in June last year when the term grew in popularity via social media, after Hillary Clinton apparently texted the word to the owner of a Tumblr featuring an image of her texting.

It describes the act of a person taking a photo of themselves and uploading it online, and beat other buzzwords to win word of the year, including twerk – a sexualised dance popularised by Miley Cyrus, bitcoin – used to describe digital currency, and schmeat – meat grown in a test tube.

To qualify for word of the year, a word must have become popular within the last year, and its use was calculated by Oxford Dictionaries using a research tool which collects around 150 million English words from the web each month.

The award celebrates the inventiveness of the English language in the face of social, political or technological change.

A posting on the Oxford Dictionaries blog added: "Self-portraits are nothing new – people have been producing them for centuries, with the medium and publication format changing.

"And now as smartphones have become de rigueur for most, rather than just for techies, the technology has ensured that selfies are both easier to produce and to share, not least by the inclusion of a button which means you don’t need a nearby mirror. It seems likely that this will have contributed at least in part to its increased usage."

It rose from 500 uses per billion words in January this year to 5,500 uses per billion words last month, and the -ie suffix has become the accepted spelling after another variation used -y.

The term has inspired numerous spin-offs including helfie – a picture of one’s hair, drelfie – a drunk selfie, and even bookshelfie.

Oxford Dictionaries added: "Whether any of these catch on in the same way is debatable. The multiple meanings may prove a difficult obstacle to overcome."

In August, bitcoin, phablet and BYOD were three of 120 words added to the Oxford Dictionary.