One of the beautiful (or frustrating) things about English is that there is no academy or organisation that standardises the language (or standardizes it!). So we rely on dictionaries to help us with one variety of English or another. That means you get a lot of variation in the language, and no one type of English that is correct. And at the end of the year, we get a lot of different words of the year!
So here are the words of the year from around the English-speaking world: which would you choose as your word of the year?
Rage-bait
The Oxford word of the year is rage-bait. Choosen by public vote, Oxford says the use of rage-bait has increased 3 times this year. Both parts of this word ‘rage’ meaning anger and ‘bait’ which is a tempting piece of food, are common words in English. This year rage-bait has been used to mean those frustrating social media posts which are designed to make you angry.
Rage-Bait (n.) 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.
Have you seen examples of rage-bait this year?
Slop
Merriam-Webster chose ‘slop’ as the word of 2025. Referring to images, words, reports and videos generated by AI that are not good quality.
Slop (n) “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.”
Slop has a lot of meanings, including as verb – to slop meaning to carelessly spill a liquid, or a noun as waste from a kitchen or bathroom or a food for pigs. It seems we’re not afraid of AI now, Merriam-Webster says. Instead of being fearful of it, now we’re mocking its bad output.
AI Slop
Macquarie Dictionary also chose AI Slop as its word of the year. Both the dictionary committee and the public vote were decisive in choosing AI slop for 2025.
‘We understand now in 2025 what we mean by slop — AI generated slop, which lacks meaningful content or use. While in recent years we’ve learnt to become search engineers to find meaningful information, we now need to become prompt engineers in order to wade through the AI slop. Slop in this sense will be a robust addition to English for years to come. The question is, are the people ingesting and regurgitating this content soon to be called AI sloppers?’
–THE COMMITTEE
It seems we’re not going to escape AI or its slop in 2026!
67
Dictionary.com went for 67 (pronounced six-seven). Have you heard kids saying this? It’s trendy slang for school-children at the moment. But what does it mean? No one is quite sure…
And now for the moment adults around the world have been waiting for: What does 67 mean? Well…it’s complicated. Some say it means “so-so,” or “maybe this, maybe that,” especially when paired with its signature hand gesture where both palms face up and move alternately up and down. Some youngsters, sensing an opportunity to reliably frustrate their elders, will use it to stand in for a reply to just about any question. (“Hello, darling child, how was school today?” “67!”) A perfectly timed 67 signals that you’re part of an in-group, and if you’re already using its emerging spinoffs six-sendy and 41, you might be even cooler.
Maybe it sums up the feeling of 2025 for you? How do you feel? 67. How would you describe your year? 67. Equally frustrating to understand and funny to be part of.
Parasocial
Cambridge dictionary said parasocial was its word of the year. Maybe you’ve developed a one-sided connection with an online or famous person, that you’ve never met, or a character or even AI that you can’t meet. This kind of relationship is parasocial.
The word is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as ‘involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc, or an artificial intelligence’.
It’s not a new idea, Cambridge says the word has been around since 1959 when scientists wanted to understand how people would develop feelings for movie stars, musicians or entertainers, then appearing daily on everyone’s TV.
Vibe Coding
Collins’ Dictionary chose vibe coding as its word of the year. This year has seen a rise in software which helps you create apps by telling AI chat what you want to make:
Coined by AI pioneer Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding refers to the use of artificial intelligence prompted by natural language to write computer code. Basically, telling a machine what you want rather than painstakingly coding it yourself. It’s programming by vibes, not variables. While tech experts debate whether it’s revolutionary or reckless, the term has resonated far beyond Silicon Valley, speaking to a broader cultural shift towards AI-assisted everything in everyday life.
Even if you haven’t used it yet, vibe coding might make your life easier in future!
What’s your word of 2025?
If you’re looking for an English language teacher to help you through the maze of English, and all its glorious varieties, check out the teachers at WeAreEnglishTeachers.com
