Merriam-Webster's 2025 word of the year is 'slop'

Creepy zany and demonstrably fake content is often called slop The words proliferation online in part thanks to the widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence landed it MerriamWebsters 2025 word of the yearIts such an illustrative word said Greg Barlow MerriamWebsters president in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Mondays announcement Its part of a transformative technology AI and its something that people have found fascinating annoying and a little bit ridiculousSlop was first used in the 1700s to mean soft mud but it evolved more generally to mean something of little value The definition has since expanded to mean digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligenceIn other words you know absurd videos weird advertising images cheesy propaganda fake news that looks real junky AIwritten digital books Barlow saidAI video generators like Sora have wowed with their ability to quickly create realistic clips based merely on text prompts But a flood of these images on social media including clips depicting celebrities and deceased public figures has raised worries about misinformation deepfakes and copyrightSuch content has existed online for years but the tools are more accessible now and used to political ends by among other figures the head of the Pentagon Last month Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a manipulated image of a beloved cartoon turtle reimagined as a grenadewielding fighter to defend US military actions in VenezuelaThe Canadian animated show Franklin teaches preschoolers about kindness empathy and inclusivity but in Hegseths hands its 6yearold main character became a tool to promote violenceThe word slop evokes unpleasant images of mudcaked pigs crowding around a dirty trough or perhaps a bucket of steaming fetid stew Or AI amalgamations of algorithmic biases laden with offensive or nonsensical imageryFor some the word induces dreadBut to Barlow it brings a sense of hope The dictionarys president says the spike in searches for the word reflects that people have grown more aware of fake or shoddy content and desire the inverseThey want things that are real they want things that are genuine he said Its almost a defiant word when it comes to AI When it comes to replacing human creativity sometimes AI actually doesnt seem so intelligentTo select the word of the year the dictionarys editors review data about which words have risen in search results and usage Then they come to a consensus about which word best reflects the span of the yearWe like to think that we are a mirror for people Barlow saidOver the years there are words that are consistently looked up but theyre filtered out as the dictionarys editors pick the one that best defines the year at handWords like ubiquitous paradigm albeit irregardless these are always top lookups because theyre words that are on the edge of our lexicon Barlow said Irregardless is a word in the dictionary for one reason Its used Its been used for decades to mean regardlessThe dictionary has selected one word every year since 2003 to capture and make sense of the current moment Last year shortly after the US presidential election and amid the shifting national mood MerriamWebster chose the word polarisationA fresh edition came out last month that adds over 5000 new words a rare step that involves fully revising and reimagining one of its most popular dictionariesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever