Oxford Dictionary released its Word of the Year, and it’s the reason you can’t be online for five minutes without feeling stressed. Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2025 is “RAGE BAIT.”
They define it as, “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive.”
They say it’s being used three times more than it was a year ago, but it’s not a new term. The first recorded use was over two decades ago.
Someone used it in a forum in 2002 to describe the feeling of someone tailgating you in traffic and flashing their lights to let them pass, like they’re TRYING to give you road rage.
More than a few grammar nerds are raging that Oxford’s “word” of the year is actually TWO words. So, that’s ironic.
“Rage bait” was one of three words that made their shortlist this year. The other two were “biohack” and “aura farming.”
Biohacking is when you “attempt to improve or optimize [your] physical or mental” health using things like drugs, supplements, and new technology.
Aura farming is when you cultivate an “impressive, attractive, or charismatic persona” online to “convey an air of confidence, coolness, or mystique.”
