“Slop” is the word of the year for the oldest dictionary in the United States

Word means low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence

The term ‘slop’, which means low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence (AI), was chosen as the 2025 Word of the Year by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it was announced Monday.

The publishers of the oldest dictionary in the United States as “low-quality digital content routinely produced in large quantities by artificial intelligence,” Merriam-Webster announced on its website.

“This word reflects absurd videos, confusing advertising images, cheap propaganda, fake news that seems all too real, poorly written books about AI, and the many talking cats that have invaded people’s social media feeds this year,” noted the century-old American dictionary.

“People find it irritating, but they consume it anyway,” they added.

According to the editors of Merriam-Webster, “all that material poured onto the screens is contained in just four letters.”

“The English language has once again fulfilled its purpose”, they stressed.

Other notable words include the verb ‘to gerrymander’ (illegitimately divide a political unit to gain an electoral advantage), ‘tariff’, in reference to Trump’s tariffs, and ‘six seven’, a joke sung repeatedly by young children that has no specific meaning but has become popular internationally.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary also mentions the expression ‘touch grass’, which refers to in-person activities rather than online.

The word ‘performative’ is notable for its popular use to describe an action carried out for display, as a ‘conclave’, for the election of the new Pope of Rome.

Lake Webster, in Massachusetts, closes the list of words of the year due to its alternative name that appeared in the video game Roblox. It can also be called Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.

Merriam-Webster’s choice of word of the year is based primarily on search volume, so current events like artificial intelligence and the new Pope have made ‘slop’ and ‘conclave’ popular choices.

In 2020 and 2021, for example, the North American dictionary’s words of the year were ‘pandemic’ (pandemic) and ‘vaccine’ (vaccine), respectively.

Meanwhile, Oxford University Press, publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary, chose ‘rage bait’ as its word of the year, defined as “online content deliberately created to provoke anger or outrage”.

The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) chose ‘dana’ (acronym for isolated depression at high levels) as its word of the year for 2024, but has not yet announced this year’s.