Which terms best represent 2025?
Each year, editors from publications ranging from the Oxford English Dictionary to the Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English select a word of the year.
Sometimes these terms are thematically linked, especially in the aftermath of world-changing events. Pandemic, lockdown and coronavirus were among them, for example the words chosen in 2020. At other times they are a potpourri of different cultural trends, like in 2022 goblin mode, permacrisisAnd gas lighting.
This year’s agenda largely revolves around digital life. But instead of reflecting the unbridled optimism about the internet in its early years – when words are fun w00t, blogging, tweetand even face with tears of joy emoji (?) were chosen – this year’s selections reflect a growing unease about the way the internet has become a hotbed of artifice, manipulation and fake relationships.
When seeing is not believing
A committee representing the Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English chose AI slop as its word of the year.
Macquarie defines the termwhich was popularized in 2024 by a British programmer Simon Willison and technology journalist Casey Newtonas “low-quality content created by generative AI, often buggy, and not requested by the user.”
AI slop, which can range from a saccharine image of a young girl clinging to her small dog Unpleasant career advice on LinkedInoften goes viral as gullible social media users share these computer-generated videos, text and images with others.
Images have been manipulated or altered since the beginning of photography. The technique was then improved, with the help of AI, to create ‘deepfakes’, which can transform existing images into video clips in a surreal way. Yes, you can watch now Hitler teamed up with Stalin to sing a 70s hit by the Buggles.
What makes AI slop different is that images or video can be created from scratch by providing a chatbot with just a prompt:no matter how bizarre the request or the resulting export.
Meet my new friend, ChatGPT
The editors of the Cambridge Dictionary have chosen parasocial. They define this as “involving or relating to a connection that one feels between oneself and oneself a famous person they don’t knowa character in a book, film, TV series. . . or an artificial intelligence.”
These asymmetric relations, said the editor-in-chief of the dictionaryare the result of ‘the public’s fascination with celebrities and their lifestyles’, and this interest ‘continues to reach new heights’.
As an example, the Cambridge announcement cited the engagement of singer Taylor Swift and football player Travis Kelceleading to a spike in online searches for the meaning of the term. Lots of Swifties responded with unbridled joyas if their best friend or sibling had just decided to tie the knot.
But the term is not new: it was coined by sociologists in 1956 to describe “the illusion” of having “a personal relationship” with an artist.
However, parasocial relationships can take a bizarre or even ominous turn when the object of someone’s affection is a chatbot. People develop real feelings for these AI systems, whether they see them as… trusted friend or even a romantic partner. Young peoplein particular, are now turning to generative AI for therapy.
Taking the bait
The Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year is anger bait the editors decide as “online content that is intentionally designed to arouse anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.”
This is just the latest word for forms of emotional manipulation that have plagued the online world since the days of dial-up internet. Related terms include trolls, sea lionsAnd placing waste.
Unlike a snap opinion – a hasty opinion on a subject that may be poorly reasoned or articulated – provoking anger is intended to be inflammatory. And it can be seen as both a cause and a consequence of political polarization.
There have been people posting rage bait demonstrated a lack of empathy and to view the emotions of others as something that can be exploited or even monetized. Angers, in short, reflect the dark side of the attention economy.
Pointless meaning
Perhaps the most controversial word choice in 2025 was 6-7, chosen by Dictionary.com. In this case the controversy has to do with the real meaning of this bit of Gen Alpha jargon. The editorial staff of the website describe it as ‘meaningless, ubiquitous and nonsensical’.
While the definition may be slippery, the term itself can be found in the lyrics of rapper Skrilla, who released the single ‘Doot Doot (6 7)” in early 2025. It was popularized by the 17-year-old basketball player Taylen Kinney. For his part, Skrilla claimed that he “never gave it any real meaning, and I still wouldn’t want to.”
6-7 is sometimes accompanied by a gesture, as if comparing the weight of objects held with both hands. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently performed this hand movement during a school visit. The young students were delighted. However, their teacher informed Starmer that her charges were not allowed to use it at school, prompting an awkward apology from the chastened Prime Minister.
Throw your hands in the air?
Perhaps the common element these words share is an attitude that can best be described as: digital nihilism.
As online misinformation, AI-generated text and images, fake news and conspiracy theories abound, it is becoming increasingly difficult to know who or what to believe or trust. Digital nihilism is essentially a recognition of a lack of meaning and certainty in our online interactions.
This year’s vocabulary can best be summed up by a single emoji: the shrug (?). Throwing your hands up in resignation or indifference reflects the anarchy that seems to characterize our digital lives.
Roger J Cross is associate dean and Feinstone Interdisciplinary Research Professor at the University of Memphis.
This article is republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
#slop #rage #bait #words #year #represent #digital #disillusionment