Oxford Names 'Rage Bait' Word of the Year for 2025

Overview

• Oxford defines the term as online content deliberately created to provoke anger or outrage to drive engagement.
• Usage of the phrase tripled in the past year, according to evidence from Oxford’s roughly 30‑billion‑word corpus.
• The choice prevailed over the finalists “aura farming” and “biohack.”
• More than 30,000 public votes helped guide a committee decision following a shortlist campaign featuring character videos by creative studio Uncommon.
• Other dictionaries highlighted different trends for 2025, with Cambridge selecting “parasocial” and Collins choosing “vibe coding.”