Every year the Oxford Dictionaries publishes a shortlist of new words, one of which will be chosen as the "Word of the Year". This year's choices includes coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) and chatbot (a computer program humans can have a conversation with). Also on the list is a word from Denmark - hygge. Some words are almost impossible to translate and hygge is probably one of them. The Oxford Dictionaries defines it as "a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture)".

You can see why it is probably impossible to find a word in English (and probably other languages too) that quite captures the meaning. Danes themselves say that it is a word that needs to be "felt" rather than translated. Even saying the word can be a bit tricky for non-Danes. It is pronounced something like HOOG-uh (which rhymes with sugar).

Recently hygge has become something of a fad, with books, websites, cafes and even hashtags making use of the word. Writers try to make sense of the word and books have been written telling how to achieve it. But probably the best way to understand hygge is evidence of what it looks like in practice.

The Guardian newspaper gives us a list - 'coffee pots, cinnamon buns, candles; cashmere socks, hands wrapped around mugs'. The danish website www.visitdenmark.com explains it this way: "Hygge means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people. The warm glow of candlelight is hygge. Friends and family – that's hygge too. There's nothing more hygge than sitting round a table, discussing the big and small things in life."

Perhaps the fact that hygge is unique to Denmark might go some way to explaining why a country that in winter experiences freezing cold as well as darkness for 17 hours a day, can still be judged the 'world's happiest country' by the World Happiness Report in 2016.