Another week, another Word of the Year reveal that perfectly and depressingly captures the intellectually dismal times in which we find ourselves. (Yes, I’m a ton of fun at New Year’s Eve parties.) First Dictionary.com crowned “67” as their WOTY to rile up the kids (even though they’re technically numbers). Then the august Cambridge Dictionary weighed in with their pick “Parasocial,” a clever choice from a marketing point of view as they promoted the selection by tying it into the public’s fascination/obsession with Taylor Swift’s engagement. Now Cambridge’s fellow English institution, Oxford University Press, has unveiled their 2025 winner. Oxford had me twitching last year when their “word” of the year was “Brain Rot” — TWO words! I know I’m being literal and nerdy but this is a frickin’ WORD competition, the words matter! Well, Oxford has done it again, and this time it ties in to the definition of the word(s) itself, “Rage Bait,” since they are so clearly out to bait me into the rage I currently find myself!
The publisher for the Oxford English Dictionary said on Monday it chose “rage bait” as its top word for the year, capturing the internet zeitgeist of 2025.
The word of the year is selected by lexicographers at Oxford University Press who analyze new and emerging words, as well as changes in the way language is being used, to identify words of “cultural significance.”
What is “rage bait”?
The phrase refers to online content that is “deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive,” to drive traffic to a particular social media account, Oxford said in a statement.
“The person producing it will bask in the millions, quite often, of comments and shares and even likes sometimes,” lexicographer Susie Dent told CBS News partner BBC. This is a result of the algorithms used by social media companies, “because although we love fluffy cats, we’ll appreciate that we tend to engage more with negative content and content that really provokes us.”
It is similar to clickbait, where a headline is used to lure a reader into viewing an article or a video, but rage bat content’s specific focus is on making people angry.
“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,” Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, told BBC News. “Before, the internet was focused on grabbing our attention by sparking curiosity in exchange for clicks, but now we’ve seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond.”
Rage bait topped two other contenders — “aura farming” and “biohack” — after public comment on a shortlist compiled by the publisher’s lexicographers.
“Aura farming” means to cultivate a public image by presenting oneself in “a way intended subtly to convey an air of confidence, coolness or mystique.”
“Biohack” is defined as “an attempt to improve or optimize one’s physical or mental performance, health or longevity.”
As I noted above, I can’t deny that “Rage Bait” is apt for 2025 — it basically sums up every online post made by the current administration/president — but it’s no less dispiriting for being accurate. Heavy sigh. For reference, Oxford’s 2005 WOTY was “Podcast” while 2015’s was “Emoji.” Still reflections of the influence of tech on our culture, but minus the sinister connotations. The seeming anger embedded into algorithms is really out to destroy us. Unlike what one of the lexicographers says here, I actually don’t “engage more with negative content and content that really provokes us.” What does provoke me, though, is the sense of inevitability or supremacy of the algorithm. We hear it a lot with AI too, the argument “Well, the technology is already here, so that’s that!” What’s a word for someone who strongly opposes the march of hateful algorithms taking over our lives? Besides luddite? That’s my word of the century!
PS — No joke, but “Aura Farming” must have originated from Goop, right? And possibly “Biohack,” too?
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