Oxford University Press chooses ‘rage bait’ as word of the year

It emerges as the winner from a shortlist of three words, including aura farming and biohack

The Oxford University Press has chosen rage bait as its 2025 word of the year, reflecting the explosive role of online content engineered to spark outrage.

Use of the term has tripled over the past 12 months, underscoring a growing cultural preoccupation with how emotion is employed online.

The Oxford English Dictionary’s publisher counted 30,000 votes in three days and consulted experts before selecting the winner from a shortlist of three: rage bait, aura farming, and biohack.

The words, Oxford said in an online announcement, “reflect our conversations and preoccupation over the past year”.

Rage bait is defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content”.

The word, which was first used online in 2002, the Oxford University Press said, has evolved to “signal a deeper shift in how we talk about attention -- both how it is given and how it is sought after -- engagement, and ethics online”.

The word is also described as “internet slang” used to describe viral tweets and content.

Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Languages, said the very existence of the word bore testimony to how aware people became online “of the manipulation tactics”.

“Before, the internet was focused on grabbing our attention by sparking curiosity in exchange for clicks, but now we’ve seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond,” Casper said.

“It feels like the natural progression in an ongoing conversation about what it means to be human in a tech-driven world -- and the extremes of online culture,” Casper said.

He recalled last year’s winner, brain rot, which he said “captured the mental drain of endless scrolling”.

“And together, they form a powerful cycle where outrage sparks engagement, algorithms amplify it, and constant exposure leaves us mentally exhausted. These words don’t just define trends; they reveal how digital platforms are reshaping our thinking and behaviour,” he explained.

Aura farming, on the other hand, has been defined as “the cultivation of an impressive, attractive and charismatic persona or public image by behaving or presenting oneself in a way intended subtly to convey an air of confidence, coolness, and mystique”.

First appearing online in 2023, the use of the word peaked in July, largely as a response to a viral video of an 11-year-old Indonesian, a motivational dancer, who effortlessly tried to look cool.

The third contender, biohack, defined the effort in which one attempts to improve or optimise their physical or mental performance, health, longevity or wellbeing by altering diet, exercise routine or lifestyle or using drugs, supplements or technological devices.

The word came to prominence rather recently, with its application doubling over the past year, the Oxford University Press said.