SYDNEY (REUTERS) - "Democracy sausage" was named Australia's word of the year on Wednesday (Dec 14) after the term was embraced at this year's national election to describe the tradition of grilling sausages on barbeques for hungry voters at polling booths.

Australia's National Dictionary Centre, which chooses the year's most prominent word, said "democracy sausage" emerged victorious after it gained a large exposure on social media during the July 2 election.

"Democracy sausage is, we think, pretty much the best thing to come out of the federal election, we reckon it won the popular vote," Australian National Dictionary editor and researcher Julia Robinson told Reuters by telephone from the nation's capital Canberra.

The dictionary defines "democracy sausage" as "a barbecued sausage served on a slice of bread, bought at a polling booth sausage sizzle on election day".

It beat out shortlisted contenders including "shoey", which is the act of drinking alcohol from a shoe, made popular by Australian Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, and "smashed avo", which is short for the popular breakfast of smashed avocado on bread or toast.

"Democracy sausage" will be added to the next edition of Australia's national dictionary, which was last published in August and contains 16,000 uniquely Aussie words, Ms Robinson said.