OUP’s ‘word of the year’ impacts social media status
With 2025 having entered its final month, every annual activity has assumed a pace of its own. A news agency report reveals that Rage bait, or online content deliberately designed to instigate an individual, was on Monday named the ‘word of the year’ by Oxford University Press (OUP), which published the hugely popular Oxford English Dictionary. Going further, OUP said that the term is a noun which describes online content that is designed to frustrate, provoke, or offensive, typically posted to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account. It found that the word has increased threefold in usage in the last 12 months, based on its language monitoring data.
“The fact that the word rage bait exists and has seen such a dramatic surge in usage means we’re increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics we can be drawn into online,” maintained Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages at OUP. Three years ago, they adopted the public vote to decide its ‘word of the year’ over social media platforms. According to a report in The Guardian, ‘Since “the true arbiters of language” are “people around the world”, Oxford Languages had decided to put the final decision on the 2022 word in the hands of the English-speaking public.
Wikipedia notes that ‘Goblin Mode’ was selected for that coveted spot. Goblin mode is a neologism for the rejection of societal expectations in a hedonistic manner without concern for one’s self-image. While usage of the term dates back to 2009 with varying definitions, the term went viral in early 2022. Its subsequent popularity stemmed from a tweet featuring a doctored Fox News headline of an interview with actress Julia Fox, purporting her to have used the phrase.
The image prompted a large increase in online searches for goblin mode, compelling Fox to clarify that she did not use the term. Goblin mode has also been linked to a viral Reddit post in which a user admits to acting “like a goblin” when alone at home. The term went viral on social media platforms such as TikTok. The ‘word of the year’, it appears, has consistently appealed to a wide section of online and offline media users if the words selected in 2024 and 2023 are pointers. “Brain rot” was the ‘word of the year for 2024. It is a term to describe perceived decline in one’s mental faculties from consuming excessive, trivial online content.
The selection was based on a public vote of over 37,000 participants and reflects growing concerns about the
impact of digital media on mental health. The word has a long history but saw a massive increase in usage in 2024, primarily by the younger generation on social media. In 2023 it was “rizz”. Defined as “pertaining to someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness,” the word is a shortened form of “charisma” and is a popular Gen Z slang term that gained significant mainstream use in 2023, partly due to actor
Tom Holland using the word in an interview. In all, a fascinating insight into how the English language, the basic tool of communication for a vast section of the globe has constantly adapted, adopted and aggregated various influences into its system.