The word ‘slop’, which translates as “junk content generated by artificial intelligence (AI)”, was chosen as the word of the year for the American dictionary Merriam-Webster in 2025.
The editors of the oldest dictionary in the United States defined the word ‘slop’ as “low-quality digital content that is routinely produced in large quantities using artificial intelligence,” Merriam-Webster announced on its website.
“This word reflects absurd videos, messy advertising images, corny propaganda, fake news that seems quite real, books written by poor quality AI and many talking cats that have invaded people’s social networks this year,” they noted from the century-old American dictionary.
“People found it annoying, but they consumed it anyway,” they added.
According to the editors of Merriam-Webster, “all that material on our screens is captured in just four letters. The English language has once again fulfilled its function.”
Other notable words were the verb ‘to gerrymander’ (to divide a political unit illegitimately in search of gaining electoral advantage), ‘tariff’ for Trump’s tariffs, or ‘six seven’, a joke hummed very repeatedly by small children that has no specific meaning but became internationally popular.
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The Merriam-Webster dictionary also mentioned the expression ‘touch grass’ in reference to doing activities in person instead of online, the word ‘performative’ for its popular use to define an action done for show and ‘conclave’, for the election of the new Pope of Rome.
Massachusetts’ Webster Lake closed out the word of the year list for its alternate name that appeared in the video game Roblox. It can also be called Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary’s word of the year selection is largely based on search numbers, so trending topics like AI or the new Pope made ‘slop’ and ‘conclave’ popular.
In 2020 and 2021, for example, the words of the year for the American dictionary were ‘pandemic’ and ‘vaccine’.
On the other hand, Oxford University Press, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, chose ‘rage bait’ as the word of the year, defined as “online content deliberately designed to provoke anger or indignation.”
The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) chose ‘dana’ (Isolated Depression at High Levels) as the word for 2024, while it has not yet published this year’s word.
With information from EFE.
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