Oxford names ‘rage bait’ Word of the Year 2025
Oxford Languages has selected “rage bait” as its Word of the Year for 2025 following a public vote that attracted more than 30,000 participants, Qazinform News Agency reports.
According to Oxford, rage bait refers to “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.”
Language experts noted that usage of the term has tripled over the past year, reflecting growing public awareness of how emotions are increasingly leveraged in online communication.
Oxford said the choice was shaped by a news cycle dominated by social unrest, debate over online content regulation, and rising concerns about digital wellbeing. Rage bait was also seen as a sign of a broader shift in discussions around attention, engagement and ethics in the digital space.
Although written as two words, Oxford clarifies that “rage bait” is treated as a single unit of meaning. It is a compound formed from rage, meaning intense anger, and bait, meaning something used to lure or attract. While similar to clickbait, the expression focuses more specifically on content designed to drive outrage, polarization and emotional response.
“The fact that the word rage bait exists and has seen such a dramatic surge in usage means we’re increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics we can be drawn into 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. It feels like the natural progression in an ongoing conversation about what it means to be human in a tech-driven world—and the extremes of online culture,” said Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages. “Where last year’s choice, brain rot, captured the mental drain of endless scrolling, rage bait shines a light on the content purposefully engineered to spark outrage and drive clicks. And together, they form a powerful cycle where outrage sparks engagement, algorithms amplify it, and constant exposure leaves us mentally exhausted. These words don’t just define trends; they reveal how digital platforms are reshaping our thinking and behaviour.”
Oxford added that the emergence of the term highlights the flexibility of the English language and its ability to adapt to contemporary digital realities. Other shortlisted contenders for the 2025 Word of the Year included aura farming, describing the cultivation of a charismatic public image, and biohack, referring to efforts to optimize physical or mental performance through lifestyle or technological interventions.
As Qazinform reported earlier, Dictionary.com selected the number “67” as its Word of the Year, while Cambridge Dictionary named parasocial its Word of the Year 2025.
