These Words of the Year Reflect AI’s Impact on Digital Life

Artificial intelligence, digital platforms and online interaction are prominent themes among three major dictionaries’ highlighted trending words for 2025.

Rage Bait

Oxford University Press named “rage bait” its word of the year after public voting and analysis of usage data. Oxford defines rage bait as “online content deliberately designed to elicit 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 account.” Oxford reported that use of the term increased “threefold” over the past year, coinciding with heightened debate around content moderation, misinformation and platform algorithms. 

“As technology and artificial intelligence become evermore embedded into our daily lives — from deepfake celebrities and AI-generated influencers to virtual companions and dating platforms — there’s no denying that 2025 has been a year defined by questions around who we truly are; both online and offline,” said Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages.  

Slop

Merriam-Webster’s editors chose “slop” as its word of the year, which they define as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” Editors pointed to the proliferation of AI-generated images, videos, written content and automated workplace materials throughout 2025. The word itself predates the digital era, but Merriam-Webster noted that the term gained renewed relevance as users searched for language to describe the increasing volume of automated content appearing across social platforms and search results. 

“The flood of slop in 2025 included absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books, ‘workslop’ reports that waste coworkers’ time … and lots of talking cats. People found it annoying, and people ate it up,” Merriam-Webster said in a statement. 

Parasocial

Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year is “parasocial,” a term to describe how people form emotional connections online. Cambridge defines the adjective as “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.” In 2025, Cambridge observed increased use of the word in discussions about fandom, podcast culture, influencer engagement and conversational AI. 

According to Cambridge, parasocial relationships expanded beyond celebrities to include AI chatbots and digital companions. Reports throughout the year documented users treating AI systems as confidants or sources of emotional support, prompting discussion among researchers and policymakers about the social and psychological implications of increasingly human-like interfaces.  

“Millions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by their rise.  The data reflects that, with the Cambridge Dictionary website seeing spikes in lookups for ‘parasocial’,” said Colin McIntosh of the Cambridge Dictionary. “The language around parasocial phenomena is evolving fast, as technology, society and culture shift and mutate: from celebrities to chatbots, parasocial trends are fascinating for those who are interested in the development of language.” 

Federal IT Word of the Year

While each dictionary emphasized a different term, all three words of the year are linked by a common context: rapid advances in AI-generated content and digital interaction. Our word of the year is “efficiency,” a nod to federal government’s reigning priority around AI and reducing waste.

Government agencies have launched new AI initiatives to increase efficiency or safeguard systems this year.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid this month adopted an explainable AI model to help investigators focus on high-risk Medicare claims and reduce false-positive fraud alerts.

In July, Co-Chairman of the Congressional DOGE Caucus Rep. Pete Sessions called for data sharing and partnerships to reduce waste and improve efficiency at the GovCIO Media & Research Federal IT Efficiency Summit.

In May, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins told Congress that new efficiencies driven by technology upgrades will allow the department to right-size its workforce by slashing positions leadership deems superfluous. Collins said that efficiencies in technology can counterbalance agency cuts, as legislation like the PACT Act and MISSION Act dramatically reshape how the agency functions.