Oxford Dictionary named "rage bait" the word of 2025: what it means
Kyiv • UNN
The Oxford Dictionary has chosen "rage bait" as its word of 2025. This definition refers to online content created to provoke anger and increase traffic.
The Oxford Dictionary has named "rage bait" as the word of 2025, the compilers reported, writes UNN.
Details
"The wait is over - the official Oxford word of 2025 is 'rage bait'," the statement said.
As stated, language experts selected three contenders - "rage bait", "aura farming" and "biohack" - "which reflect our conversations and concerns over the past year." After three days of voting, in which more than 30,000 people participated, experts chose "rage bait", taking into account votes, public comment sentiment and analysis of our lexical data.
"Rage bait" is defined as "online content deliberately designed to provoke anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, usually posted with the aim of increasing traffic or engagement with a particular web page or social media content," the dictionary compilers state.
"Given that the 2025 news cycle was full of social unrest, debates about online content regulation, and concerns about digital well-being," experts reportedly noted that "the use of the term 'rage bait' this year has evolved, signaling deeper shifts in how we talk about attention – both how it is given and how it is sought – engagement, and ethics online." "In the last 12 months, the use of this word has tripled," the statement said.
"The term 'rage bait' was first used online in a Usenet post in 2002 as a way to refer to a certain type of driver's reaction to another driver asking them to overtake, which introduced the idea of intentional agitation. The word then evolved into internet slang used to describe viral tweets, often to criticize entire networks of content that determine what is posted online, such as platforms, creators, and trends," the statement said.