The wait is over—the official Oxford Word of the Year 2025 is rage bait.
Our language experts shortlisted three contenders—rage bait, aura farming, and biohack—that reflect our conversations and preoccupations over the past year. After three days of voting in which more than 30,000 people had their say, our experts chose rage bait after considering votes, the sentiment of public commentary, and their analysis of our lexical data.
Rage bait is so 2024. Doomscrolling is the hot new thing.