A week after ‘parasocial’ went viral, Oxford University Press has named ‘rage bait’ as its word of the year, showcasing how social media has influenced the world this year
The Oxford University Press says it is a perfect summary of 2025’s chaos. Photo Courtesy: File pic
A little less than two weeks after Cambridge Dictionary announced ‘Parasocial’ as its Word of the Year for 2025, Oxford University Press has announced ‘Rage Bait’ as The Oxford Word of the Year 2025. The interesting common factor among both the words is their connection to social media and its influence on the world today.
The term ‘parasocial’ is defined as a one-sided relationship between a fan or follower and typically a celebrity that they admire, a trend that is visible in more than one way in India. On the other hand, Oxford defines ‘rage bait’ as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account”.
Every person who spends time on social media today is by now acquainted with the word that has been doing the rounds of the Internet since the start of 2025, if not before that, and this is exactly why the word was selected, according to the social media account of Oxford University Press.
View this post on Instagram
The post on Instagram reads, “In a perfect summary of 2025’s chaos - and following a public vote and analysis from our language experts - rage bait has been crowned Word of the Year. We saw an increase in usage as people began to take more conscious and calculated control of their online presence - curating personas deliberately aimed at baiting other users to appease algorithms and garner engagement. Offline, this phenomenon now also plays a big role in shaping conversations about politics, identity, and misinformation.”
The word 'rage bait' beat the likes of 'aura farming' and 'bio hack' to the vote showcasing how much linguistics has evolved over the years. Interestingly, the Oxford Word of the Year in 2024 ‘Brain Rot’ was also one that was influenced by social media; the Oxford Word of the Year in 2023 was ‘rizz’. Simultaneously, Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2024 was ‘Manifest’ and ‘Hallucinate’ before that.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
