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LONDON — Oxford University Press has named “rage bait” as its phrase of the yr, capturing the web zeitgeist of 2025.
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The phrase refers to on-line content material that’s “intentionally designed to elicit anger or outrage by being irritating, provocative or offensive,” with the purpose of driving site visitors to a specific social media account, Oxford mentioned in a press release.
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“The particular person producing it’s going to bask within the thousands and thousands, very often, of feedback and shares and even likes generally,” lexicographer Susie Dent instructed the BBC. This is a results of the algorithms utilized by social media firms, “as a result of though we love fluffy cats, we’ll respect that we have a tendency to have interaction extra with unfavorable content material and content material that actually provokes us.”
‘Aura farming’ and ‘biohack’ additionally in working
Rage bait topped two different contenders — “aura farming” and “biohack” — after public touch upon a shortlist compiled by lexicographers at Oxford University Press.
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“Aura farming” means to domesticate a public picture by presenting oneself in “a approach supposed subtly to convey an air of confidence, coolness or mystique.” “Biohack” is outlined as “an try to enhance or optimize one’s bodily or psychological efficiency, well being or longevity.”
The phrase of the yr is chosen by lexicographers at Oxford University Press who analyze new and rising phrases, in addition to modifications in the way in which language is getting used, to determine phrases of “cultural significance.”
Oxford University Press, writer of the Oxford English Dictionary, has chosen a phrase of the yr yearly since 2004.
Past winners embrace “podcast” in 2005, “emoji” in 2015, and in 2022 “goblin mode,” which described individuals who resisted returning to regular life after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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