Merriam-Webster's 2025 Word of the Year Is 'Slop'—And It's a Savage Takedown of AI
Merriam-Webster crowned 'slop' as 2025's word of the year, defining it as low-quality digital content mass-produced by AI. The choice signals a cultural shift from AI fear to mockery, as the dictionary argues the technology isn't quite as superintelligent as promised.
Merriam-Webster’s 2025 Word of the Year Is ‘Slop’—And It’s a Savage Takedown of AI
The Dictionary’s Most Fashionably Late Pick
While Oxford Dictionary crowned “rage bait” and Collins Dictionary chose “vibe coding,” Merriam-Webster arrived at the party with something far more cutting: “slop.”
The dictionary defines it as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” But that clinical definition barely captures the cultural moment Merriam-Webster is documenting. This isn’t just a word—it’s a judgment call wrapped in linguistic packaging.
What Exactly Counts as Slop?
According to Merriam-Webster, the flood of slop in 2025 included:
- Absurd AI-generated videos
- Off-kilter advertising images
- Cheesy propaganda
- Fake news that looks surprisingly convincing
- Junky AI-written books
- Pointless “workslop” reports cluttering office inboxes
- Talking cats (apparently many of them)
“People found it annoying, and people ate it up,” the dictionary notes. The contradiction is the point. Whether users loved it or hated it, slop proved impossible to ignore. “Slop oozes into everything,” Merriam-Webster observed.
A Tonal Shift: From Dread to Mockery
Here’s what makes this choice genuinely interesting: it signals a cultural turning point.
For years, the conversation around AI has oscillated between utopian promises and existential dread. But Merriam-Webster’s framing suggests we’ve moved into a different emotional territory altogether. The dictionary explicitly states that “in 2025, amid all the talk about AI threats, slop set a tone that’s less fearful, more mocking.”
The message to AI, as Merriam-Webster puts it, is pointed: “When it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes you don’t seem too superintelligent.”
It’s a subtle but significant shift. We’re not afraid of AI anymore. We’re laughing at it.
What to Watch For
- How tech companies respond to being publicly mocked by a major dictionary
- Whether “slop” enters everyday conversation as a casual insult for low-quality content
- If other dictionaries adopt similar irreverent tones toward tech terminology
- The gap between AI hype and actual user experience continuing to widen
The Other Contenders
Merriam-Webster’s selection committee considered several alternatives that reveal what else captured public attention in 2025:
- “Gerrymander” – the political redistricting term that refuses to fade
- “Touch grass” – Gen Z’s blunt advice for logging off
- “Performative” – calling out fake activism
- “Tariff” – economics entered the zeitgeist
- “Six seven” – Gen Alpha’s mysteriously popular number obsession
- “Conclave” – the papal succession following Pope Francis’ death
- “Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg” – a spelling bee nightmare from Roblox that somehow crashed Merriam-Webster’s search system
The Bigger Picture
Merriam-Webster’s choice reflects something profound happening in tech culture. We’ve moved from “AI will destroy us” to “AI will bore us to death with mediocre content.” That’s not necessarily comforting, but it’s a different kind of conversation.
The dictionary’s decision also stands in contrast to other major word-of-the-year picks. While Cambridge Dictionary went with “parasocial” (capturing our complicated relationships with AI bots and celebrities alike), Merriam-Webster opted for something more actively judgmental. They didn’t just identify a trend—they named it and dunked on it simultaneously.
In choosing “slop,” Merriam-Webster essentially gave the entire tech industry a collective eye roll. And honestly? That might be the most honest assessment of where we actually are with AI in 2025.