Oxford Dictionaries has chosen the word of the year 2025: it vividly illustrates our communication online.
The Oxford Dictionaries have chosen the expression as the 2025 lexeme of the year rage bait, which translates from English as "anger bait." She talks about how the word of the year was chosen and other contenders. Happy Monday.
Experts annually select one word that, in their opinion, reflects the general mood of people over the past 12 months. In 2025, it was determined by online voting over three days. Three options were proposed:
1. Rage bait is online content specifically designed to provoke anger or outrage in an audience.
2. Aura farming – developing natural charisma or a confident image through repeated actions.
3. Biohack – practices aimed at improving health and prolonging life.
More than 30 thousand users took part in the voting.
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What is rage bait?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, rage bait is online content intended to provoke anger or outrage in users. This is often done through offensive or false claims. The primary goal is to increase traffic or engagement on a website or social media.
The term "anger bait" consists of two words:
- rage - a strong outburst of anger, fury;
- bait — lure, bait.
Впервые rage bait The phrase "slow down" first appeared on the Usenet information-sharing platform in 2002. It described one driver's reaction to another driver's signal asking them to let him pass—effectively a deliberate provocation. Over time, the term became part of internet slang. In 2025, it was often used to describe viral posts that provoke an emotional reaction, as well as to criticize platforms, trends, and content creators.
"The popularity of 'rage bait' shows that we are increasingly aware of the manipulative methods that can be used online. While the internet once attracted attention by piquing curiosity for clicks, we are now seeing a profound shift—it influences our emotions and reactions. This fuels discussions about what it means to be human in a technology-driven world and the extremes of online culture," commented Kasper Gratwall, President of Oxford Languages, the division responsible for dictionaries.
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Words of yesteryear
The Oxford Dictionary regularly selects a word of the year. Over the past decade, these have been:
- 2024 - Brain rot, a deterioration of mental or intellectual health due to prolonged consumption of online content.
- 2023 - rizz, short for charisma, refers to style, attractiveness, and the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.
- 2022 - goblin mode, a slang expression for behavior that ignores social norms and exhibits laziness, untidiness, and greed.
- 2021 - vax ("vaccine"), was actively used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 2020 — there was no single winner; one or two words were chosen each month, including coronavirus, COVID-19, reopening, lockdown, distancing, and cancel culture.
- 2019 — climate emergency.
- 2018 — toxic.
- 2017 — youthquake, significant cultural, political or social changes that occurred under the influence of youth.
- 2016 – post-truth, a situation where facts influence public opinion less than emotions or personal beliefs.
- 2015 – For the first time, the word of the year was not a text, but an emoji with tears of joy.
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