After yet another year of high-profile news stories and internet trends, Merriam-Webster has chosen one word to sum up 2025: Slop.<\/p>\n
The dictionary publisher defined it as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence,” and said it reflected the “absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books” that have invaded people’s social media feeds this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll that stuff dumped on our screens, captured in just four letters: the English language came through again,\u201d the company said.<\/a><\/p>\n Other words and phrases that stood out for Merriam-Webster’s editors were: Gerrymander; touch grass; performative; tariff; six seven and conclave.<\/p>\n The company also gave a shoutout to Lake Char\u00adgog\u00adga\u00adgogg\u00adman\u00adchaug\u00adga\u00adgogg\u00adchau\u00adbu\u00adna\u00adgun\u00adga\u00admaugg, an alternative name for Webster Lake in Massachusetts, which began appearing in the most-searched list of words on merriam-webster.com thanks to its appearance in the online gaming world Roblox.<\/p>\n Merriam-Webster’s word of the year selection is based largely on spikes in search data. This often means its annual pick is tied to current events, as it was in 2020 and 2021 when the respective words were “pandemic<\/a>” and “vaccine<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Last year, the dictionary chose \u201cpolarization,\u201d<\/a> noting that searches in 2024, a presidential election year, reflected \u201cthe desire of Americans to better understand the complex state of affairs in our country and around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n