‘Rage bait’: The Oxford 2025 word of the year

On Dec 1, Oxford University Press announced “rage bait” as its word of the year for 2025, beating out two other contenders, “aura farming” and “biohack”.

Rage bait is defined 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 content”.

Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said the choice reflects a shift in how attention is captured 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 hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond.”

The other shortlisted words for 2025 are described as:

Aura farming: The cultivation of an impressive, attractive, or charismatic persona or public image by behaving or presenting oneself in a way intended subtly to convey an air of confidence, coolness, or mystique.

Biohack: To attempt to improve or optimise one's physical or mental performance, health, longevity, or wellbeing by altering one's diet, exercise routine, or lifestyle, or by using other means such as drugs, supplements, or technological devices.

Last year’s Word of the Year, brain rot, also reflected concerns about digital consumption.

Brain rot is defined as a perceived loss of intelligence or critical thinking skills, esp. (in later use) was attributed to the overconsumption of unchallenging or inane content or material. 

These [two] words don’t just define trends; they reveal how digital platforms are reshaping our thinking and behaviour, Grathwohl explained.

Rage bait was selected after three days of voting with over 30,000 people participating.

“The point of the Word of the Year is to encourage people to reflect on where we are as a culture, who we are at the moment, through the lens of words we use,” Grathwohl said. “The whole point is to create conversation.”