In 2024, “ brainrot ” was chosen as the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year. The term highlights the mental deterioration caused by excessive consumption of trivial and low-quality digital content. This year, 2025 , three prestigious linguistic authorities—Dictionary.com , the Cambridge Dictionary , and the Oxford English Dictionary —suggest a shift to a more active and complex phase. Digital “slang” points to […] … learn more→

All Gen Z slang might sound like “skibidi” to older generations, but every era has had its own confusing slang. For every “gyatt” today (originally a variation of “god damn”, now referring to a curvy woman) there was a “dog my cats” or “od’s fish” in the Victorian era (both also meant something like “god […] … learn more→

As a linguist who specialises in tracking slang and language change, there’s one holiday tradition I always look forward to: the annual selection of the word of the year. Dictionary publishers and linguistics associations choose a word or expression – usually a new term or one that has taken on new meaning in the past […] … learn more→