While "taper" was the popular buzzword for financial markets last year, the dominant phrase of 2014 could be - cue drum roll - "normalization", according to Credit Agricole.
The normalization of U.S. monetary conditions and interest rates will be a key theme this year, as the Federal Reserve moves to exit from unprecedented stimulus that has suppressed bond yields over the last few years, say strategists.
"After five years of extraordinary measures, positive momentum in the economy has led to growing expectations of an end to quantitative easing and an eventual end to zero interest rate policy," David Keeble, global head of interest rates strategy at Credit Agricole, wrote in a report titled "2014 word of the year: 'normalization'" this week.
(Read more: Five things that could go wrong in 2014)