The Oxford Dictionary has chosen the term “Rage Bait” to be the “Word of the Year” for 2025, referring to the increasing prevalence of online content designed explicitly to provoke anger and stimulate interaction.
The term consists of the words “rage” and “bait,” and is used to describe posts, videos, or headlines that create deliberate provocation to attract attention and increase the number of clicks and shares. The use of this expression has recorded a threefold increase in the past year alone.
According to dictionary experts, the term first appeared in 2002 in an article on the Usenet platform, where it described an angry driver’s reaction to the flashing lights of another car. However, it gradually evolved to become part of the colloquial language of the internet, before entering the vocabulary of journalists and digital creators.
This term is linked to a broader practice known as “Rage-Farming,” where content creators seek to capitalize on emotional reactions, especially anger, to achieve wider reach, while platform algorithms promote this content for its high level of engagement.
The choice of “Rage Bait” is seen as a natural extension of last year’s “Word of the Year,” “Brain Rot,” which expressed the draining of cognitive abilities due to consuming purposeless trivial content. Together, the two terms provide a clear picture of how digital content shapes our thinking and behaviors, and how emotions are exploited to drive interaction.
Two other terms emerged among the top three candidates for the Word of the Year 2025: “Aura Farming,” which refers to constructing an attractive digital image that radiates charisma and vitality, and “Biohacking,” which means using techniques and methods to enhance bodily performance and slow signs of aging.
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