even if you don’t know the meaning of Oxford University Press‘2025 word of the year, you’ve probably been a victim of it on social media.
The publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary said Monday it had chosen “rage bait” as its top word of the year, capturing the internet zeitgeist of 2025.
The word of the year is chosen by lexicographers at Oxford University Press, who look at new and emerging words, as well as changes in the way language is used, to identify ‘words of cultural significance’.
What is “bait of rage”?
The phrase refers to driving traffic to a particular social media account that is “deliberately designed to provoke anger or outrage,” Oxford said in a statement.
“The person who produces it will get millions of comments and shares and sometimes likes, often,” lexicographer Susie Dent told CBS News. BBC. This is a result of the algorithms used by social media companies, “while we love fluffy cats, we appreciate that we tend to engage more with negative content and content that really provokes us.”
It’s similar to clickbait, where a headline is used to entice the reader to watch an article or video, but the focus of rage bait content is to make people angry.
“The existence of the word ‘anger bait’ and the fact that we have seen such a dramatic increase in its use means that we are increasingly aware of the manipulative tactics we can engage in online,” said Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages. BBC News. “In the past, the internet was all about getting our attention by sparking curiosity in exchange for clicks, but now we’ve seen a dramatic shift in how it hijacks and influences our emotions and how we respond.”
List of Word of the Year 2025
Rage bait topped two other contenders – “aura farming” and “biohack” – following public comment on a shortlist drawn up by the publisher’s lexicographers.
“Aura farming” It means cultivating a public image, presenting oneself “in a way that subtly conveys an air of confidence, coolness, or mystique.”
“Biohack” It is defined as “an attempt to improve or optimize one’s physical or mental performance, health, or longevity.”
Oxford’s past winners
Oxford University Press has selected the word of the year every year since 2004.
Past winners include “podcast” in 2005, “emoji” in 2015 and “goblin mode” in 2022, which described people who resisted returning to normal life after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year’s buzzword, brain rot, captured the mental emptiness of mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or TikTok.
Named “parasocial” by the Cambridge Dictionary As the word of the year is 2025, it “implies or relates to a connection that someone feels between themselves and an unfamiliar celebrity, a character from a book, movie, TV series, etc., or an artificial intelligence.”
Called “67” by Dictionary.com 2025 as the word of the year.