Oxford Names ‘Rage Bait’ as the 2025 Word of the Year

Written on 12/01/2025
Luis Felipe Mendoza
Volumes of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Credit: mrpolyonymous – CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. 

Oxford University Press on Monday named “rage bait” its 2025 Word of the Year, saying the two-word phrase, used to describe online content deliberately designed to provoke anger or outrage, captured a cultural moment in which the internet increasingly manipulates emotions for clicks and engagement.

Oxford Languages defined 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 webpage or social media content.” The publisher said usage of the term has tripled in the past 12 months.

Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said the rise of the phrase shows growing public awareness of “manipulation tactics” used online. “Before, the internet was focused on grabbing our attention by sparking curiosity in exchange for clicks, but now we’ve seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond,” Grathwohl said.

He added that rage bait and last year’s winner, “brain rot,” together “form a powerful cycle where outrage sparks engagement, algorithms amplify it, and constant exposure leaves us mentally exhausted.”

Besides rage bait, ‘aura farming’ was also considered by Oxford as word of the year 

Oxford’s selection process drew on the publisher’s continually updated language corpus of roughly 30 billion words compiled from news sources across the English-speaking world. The shortlist, which included “aura farming” and “biohack,” was shaped by lexicographers and public input; more than 30,000 people weighed in on the vote, Oxford said. Shortlisted entries were presented this year as personified candidates in short vertical videos produced by creative studio Uncommon.

Oxford noted that while the phrase rose to prominence in 2025, it has earlier roots. Rage bait first appeared online in a 2002 Usenet posting and later evolved into internet slang used to critique viral tweets and broader online content networks. 

The publisher pointed to contemporary examples that helped push the term into headlines, including admissions by celebrities and high-profile online feuds.

Susie Dent, a lexicographer quoted by Oxford’s media partners, described rage bait as distinct from clickbait because its specific aim is to make people angry. “The person producing it will bask in the millions, quite often, of comments and shares and even likes sometimes,” she said.

Oxford’s Word of the Year, selected annually since 2004, aims to highlight words that reflect social and cultural trends. Recent winners include brain rot (2024), rizz (2023), vax (2021), toxic (2018), and post-truth (2016), among others, the publisher said.

Grathwohl said the choice was intended to encourage public reflection about how digital platforms shape behavior as well as language. “The whole point is to create conversation,” he said.