Merriam-Webster Names ‘Slop’ the Word of the Year
Meanwhile, AI’s impact on our social media feeds has not gone unnoticed by one of America’s top dictionaries. Merriam-Webster announced Sunday that its word of the year for 2025 is “slop.”
Consequently, the dictionary defines the term as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.”
Therefore, “slop” has the wet sound of something you don’t want to touch, like slime, sludge, and muck. It oozes into everything, according to Merriam-Webster.
The Rise of AI-Generated Content
Moreover, the word “slop” has certainly been everywhere this year, as journalists and commentators have sought to describe the ways in which platforms like OpenAI’s Sora and Google Gemini’s Veo are transforming the internet.
However, thanks to this new breed of media generator, there are now AI-generated books, podcasts, pop songs, TV commercials — even entire movies. One study in May claimed that nearly 75% of all new web content from the previous month had involved some kind of AI.
The Impact of Slop on Digital Communities
In addition, these new tools have even led to what has been dubbed a “slop economy,” in which gluts of AI-generated content can be milked for advertising money. Critics worry that this trend is further polarizing digital communities.
Furthermore, the impact of “slop” is broad, to say the least. It has been used to describe AI’s impact on a large variety of fields that don’t have much to do with traditional media consumption, including cybersecurity reports, legal briefings, and the college essay, among other things.
Other Tech Words Make the Cut
Meanwhile, tech words have been big winners in the WOTY category this year. Macquarie Dictionary already beat out Merriam-Webster to make “AI slop” its annual term, while Oxford Dictionary chose “ragebait.” Collins Dictionary went with “vibe coding.”
Therefore, it’s clear that the impact of AI on our digital lives is a topic that’s been on everyone’s mind this year.
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