Analysis shows obscure and barely-used choices, drawn from online slang, do not stand the test of time
If you have seen a news story declaring 2025’s chosen “word of the year” in recent weeks, you might be forgiven for asking yourself: what, another one?
Depending on which dictionary you turn to, the chosen term this year was either Collins’ “vibe coding”, “parasocial” from Cambridge Dictionaries or their Oxford University Press rival’s “rage bait” – with many other selections besides.
From its origins 35 years ago, when the American Dialect Society attempted to find a word capable of summing up the past 12 months, this particular Americanism crossed the Atlantic in the mid-2000s and has since established itself as the closest thing to an awards season that the English language has.
“There’s dozens now,” said Jonathon Green, an author and lexicographer who specialises on the evolution of slang. “It seems to me that if you have anything to do with publishing a reference book, or certainly a dictionary of some sort, you are duty-bound to come out with one of these things.”
