Key words of modern times: the issue of the term

The article is devoted to the overview of linguistic works concerning the phenomenon of key words. The terms used to denote this language realia (i. e. “key words of the current moment”, “key words of the epoch”, “key symbols of the epoch”, “today's vocabulary”, “key words of the culture”, “trendy words”) and their definitions are presented. An attempt to specify approaches to the analysis of this phenomenon has been made. Key words are divided into groups as follows: those which are the most illustrative and essential to the given culture, those which reveal economic and social changes, political topicality of the situation or event they relate to, those which depict values, cultural priorities or the world view of the society of the specific time. Special attention is drawn to the latter: notions of “trendy words” and “key words of the epoch”. The reason of introducing a new term - “key words of modern times” - into scientific use is provided; features and examples of such words are presented.