What is the Word of the Year?

Here are the words that have been chosen as Word of the Year so far.

cambridge dictionary
parasocial: “Parasocial captures the zeitgeist of 2025. It’s a great example of how language is changing. What was once a specialized academic term has become mainstream. Millions of people are involved in parasocial relationships, and many more are simply intrigued by its rise. The data reflects that, with the Cambridge Dictionaries website seeing a surge in searches for ‘parasocial’.

my view: I first heard the term in the context of listening to a podcast, but Cambridge claims that the term is now permeating celebrity and influencer culture. How different are these “parasocial” relationships from indulging in Nirvana in 1991 or keeping close tabs on the royal family?Most importantly, the subjects of these relationships feed social algorithms a constant supply of intimacy.

Oxford University Press
bait for anger: “After three days of voting in which more than 30,000 people gave their opinions, we chose: bait for anger Named Oxford’s official Word of the Year for 2025. While the 2025 news cycle was dominated by social unrest, debates over the regulation of online content, and concerns about digital wellbeing, our experts bait for anger This year marks a deeper shift in the way we talk about both how we give and seek attention, engagement, and ethics online. Our language data shows that usage of this word has tripled in the past 12 months.

my view: Of course, this is nothing new, both online and in pre-digital life. What seems new to me is that everyone knows what it is, how it occurs, and why it smells, yet can’t control it themselves. No one is convinced. No one finds that funny. The only thing it does is make us hate ourselves and others.

dictionary.com
67: “To choose the 2025 Word of the Year, our lexicographers analyzed tons of data, including newsworthy headlines, social media trends, search engine results, and more, to identify words that influenced conversations online and in the real world.

search for 67 Since June, the number of these searches has increased more than six times, and the surge shows no signs of slowing down. Most other two-digit numbers have no meaningful trend over that period, suggesting there is something special. 67”