How is the 'Word of the Day' chosen?

Question

How is the 'Word of the Day' chosen?

Two obvious possibilities are

1. A random choice by a person (pin in dictionary sort of thing).
2. Random choice by computer.

Or it could actually be by a clever piece of software which categorises words into easy / medium / difficult, frequent / middlling / low usage, technical / everyday meanings, colloquial / 'proper' etc. and makes sure over a period of time we get a good mix.

What do people think?

Can someone 'in the know' tell us?

Answer 1

I think there is a big pond in the web server. The creator of the site goes there every morning with his fishing rod. He opens his lunchbox and starts chewing on some cheese and tomato sandwiches. Some claim that they are ham and lettuce sandwiches, but don't listen to rumours. Anyway, as soon as he catches a fish lured with the smell of his sandwiches, he forces it to speak. As we all know, fish cannot speak, but I was told (a looong time ago) that if you molest them long enough, they finally spit the word out. The fisherman runs straight back to SpanishDict and types the word in the programme, while the fish is sizzling in a pan. Can you smell it? Mmmhhh.......

Honestly, I've got no idea

Thanks for the chuckle. It complements still another glorious amanecer here where I live near the border with Mexico. - 005457e3, NOV 7, 2009

I love it! Thought there was something fishy about it! :-) - Jespa, NOV 7, 2009

Your English is great. - Seitheach, NOV 7, 2009

Answer 2

And I always thought they had a Bingo tumbler filled with little slips of paper with words on them. Who knew?