Every December, various dictionary publishers pronounce the trendiest word of the past year to be the Word of the Year. Whether we will still be using these words five years from now is anyone's guess.
Merriam-Webster often selects normal familiar words that represent what people were talking about. Recent selections were authentic, vaccine, and they, except in 2022 when they chose gaslighting. For 2025, they continue this trend by selecting a familiar word that has gained a new meaning. It is slop, which has come to refer to useless junk that floods the internet in order to draw clicks and cash. Their definition is “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” We all need to learn how to recognize AI slop, but the process can be disappointing.
The Oxford Dictionary selected brain rot as their word of the year last year. For 2025, they chose another internet term, rage bait, defined as "Online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account." In other words, they're just trying to make you mad. We used to call it trolling.
Dictionary.com went in a slightly different direction with their Word of the Year for 2025, selecting 67 (pronounced six-seven). How do they define it? They say, "we’re all still trying to figure out exactly what it means." They offer several theories, but it boils down to young people enjoying saying something that outsiders don't understand. You can call it generational trolling.
Each of these dictionaries also have a list of runners-up, including words like conclave, performative, broligarchy, tariff, and biohack. You can read about those by going to the above links.
(Image: an example of AI slop, from Wikimedia Commons)
