Look out “brain rot.” This year’s word of the year is “rage bait,” according to Oxford University Press.
Oxford named “rage bait” its 2025 Word of the Year on Monday (Dec. 1). It defined the term as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.”
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Some may wonder if there is any real surprise that “rage bait” is Oxford’s word of the year. Usage of the phrase, according to Oxford, has tripled throughout the year as many routinely take to social media to vent frustration — and well, rage.
How we got here
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, reflected on last year’s word, “brain rot.” He noted this year’s choice shows an evident shift from “endless scrolling” to being reeled in to the desire to throw your phone through a window — and then wanting to pick it back up to scroll some more.
“Where last year’s choice, brain rot, captured the mental drain of endless scrolling, rage bait shines a light on the content purposefully engineered to spark outrage and drive clicks,” Grathwohl noted. “And together, they form a powerful cycle where outrage sparks engagement, algorithms amplify it and constant exposure leaves us mentally exhausted. These words don’t just define trends; they reveal how digital platforms are reshaping our thinking and behaviour.”
Other related headlines:
Oxford’s Word of the Year 2025 is utterly infuriating -CNN
‘Rage bait’ is Oxford’s word of the year for 2025. What it means. -USAToday
Don’t get angry, but the 2025 Oxford Word of the Year is ‘rage bait’ -NPR
Oxford University Press names “rage bait” as word of the year 2025 -Axios
The links above are a sampling of headlines related to the story and are not an endorsement of all viewpoints or reporting.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was compiled by Shawn Hendricks of The Baptist Paper from various news reports.
