OLDER generations might think of the hashtag as nothing more than a button on a keyboard.

But its increasing use by young people has seen it named Children’s Word of the Year.

Oxford University Press (OUP) said hashtag and the # symbol were increasingly used by children to add emphasis to stories.

The publisher analysed 120,421 entries for the BBC Radio Two 500 Words short story competition to find out how children aged 13 and under use the English language.

Hashtag, the phrase referring to the tagging of a keyword on a Twitter, was chosen as the 2015 word of the year because of the growing use of phrases such as #frightened and #supercool.

The phrases are normally used at the end of sentences to sum up how the author felt about a situation which they have just described.

One entrant wrote: “The only think I knew for sure was that I was going to get eaten (#frightened!!!).”

Children’s author Philip Pullman, who lives in Cumnor, said the use of the word showed the versatility of the English language.

He said: “If William Shakespeare were here now I’m sure he’d be on Twitter and he’d be hashtagging too.

“The use of the hashtag shows that children are using language that’s been formed in a different medium.

“In a way a hashtag is like a new form of punctuation.

“It’s good in that it provides children with a way of expressing stuff they might not have been able to before.

“But I think it’ll get a bit irritating if it carries on for too long.

“I certainly wouldn’t want it turning up in novels or anything like that.

“Imagine the beginning of Anna Karenina with a hashtag.”

Last year’s children’s word of the year was minion, which rose in popularity after featuring in the film Despicable Me.

Other popular words used by children in their stories included YouTube, snapchat, selfie, vlog, blog, Instagram, emoji and, Whatsapp.

The words reflect the extent to which children’s lives are shaped by technology, with words such as mobile, iPod, and Nintendo slipping out of usage as they become viewed as old fashioned by youngsters.

OUP Senior Commissioning Editor Sam Armstrong said she was interested in how children had started to use hashtags differently.

She said: “It was used as a word number, for example #onedad, but now it’s used as comment instead.

“The use of the word shows how language is always changing and evolving and words can change entirely in their meaning.

“The most commonly used word by schoolchildren in Oxford last year was Queen, followed by treasure and egg.

“This year, hunter is the most used word by children here.

“It has been used in a variety of different ways such as a hunter in Africa, a dragon hunter or a zombie hunter.

“Children are also using creative vocabulary for words such as loud.

“Instead of saying loud they say deafening, booming and so on.”

Ms Armstrong added that children were inspired by what was going on around them, with references to Ebola and the First World War appearing regularly in their stories.

The winners of the 500 Words competition will be announced on BBC Radio 2 this morning.