Creepy, zany and demonstrably pretend content material is usually known as “slop.” The phrase’s proliferation on-line, partially because of the widespread availability of generative synthetic intelligence, landed it Merriam-Webster’s 2025 phrase of the yr.
“It’s such an illustrative phrase,” mentioned Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president, in an unique interview with The Related Press forward of Monday’s announcement. “It’s a part of a transformative expertise, AI, and it’s one thing that folks have discovered fascinating, annoying and a bit of bit ridiculous.”
“Slop” was first used within the 1700s to imply delicate mud, however it advanced extra typically to imply one thing of little worth. The definition has since expanded to imply “digital content material of low high quality that’s produced often in amount by the use of synthetic intelligence.”
In different phrases, “you recognize, absurd movies, bizarre promoting photographs, tacky propaganda, pretend information that appears actual, junky AI-written digital books,” Barlow mentioned.
AI video turbines like Sora have wowed with their means to rapidly create reasonable clips primarily based merely on textual content prompts. However a flood of those photographs on social media, together with clips depicting celebrities and deceased public figures, has raised worries about misinformation, deepfakes and copyright.
Such content material has existed on-line for years, however the instruments are extra accessible now — and used to political ends by, amongst different figures, the top of the Pentagon. Final month, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a manipulated picture of a beloved cartoon turtle, reimagined as a grenade-wielding fighter, to defend U.S. army actions in Venezuela.
The Canadian animated present “Franklin” teaches preschoolers about kindness, empathy and inclusivity — however in Hegseth’s palms, its 6-year-old foremost character turned a software to advertise violence.
The phrase “slop” evokes disagreeable photographs of mud-caked pigs crowding round a grimy trough, or maybe a bucket of steaming, fetid stew. Or AI amalgamations of algorithmic biases laden with offensive or nonsensical imagery.
For some, the phrase induces dread.
However to Barlow, it brings a way of hope. The dictionary’s president says the spike in searches for the phrase displays that folks have grown extra conscious of faux or shoddy content material, and want the inverse.
“They need issues which can be actual, they need issues which can be real,” he mentioned. “It’s virtually a defiant phrase on the subject of AI. In terms of changing human creativity, generally AI really doesn’t appear so clever.”
To pick the phrase of the yr, the dictionary’s editors overview knowledge about which phrases have risen in search outcomes and utilization. Then they arrive to a consensus about which phrase finest displays the span of the yr.
“We prefer to assume that we’re a mirror for individuals,” Barlow mentioned.
Over time, there are phrases which can be persistently seemed up, however they’re filtered out because the dictionary’s editors decide the one which finest defines the yr at hand.
“Phrases like ‘ubiquitous,’ ‘paradigm,’ ‘albeit,’ ‘irregardless,’ these are all the time prime lookups as a result of they’re phrases which can be on the sting of our lexicon,” Barlow mentioned. “’Irregardless’ is a phrase within the dictionary for one purpose: It’s used. It’s been used for many years to imply ‘regardless.’”
The dictionary has chosen one phrase yearly since 2003 to seize and make sense of the present second. Final yr, shortly after the U.S. presidential election and amid the shifting nationwide temper, Merriam-Webster selected the phrase “ polarization.”
A recent version got here out final month that provides over 5,000 new phrases — a uncommon step that includes totally revising and reimagining one in every of its hottest dictionaries.
Rounding out Merriam-Webster’s prime phrases of 2025:
6-7
The viral time period exploded in recognition over the summer time. It’s an inside joke with an unclear which means, pushed by social media. It may be traced again to rapper Skrilla’s 2024 music “Doot Doot (6 7).”
“It is self-referential,” Barlow mentioned. “It’s all the craze, however it’s not a defining time period.”
Performative
The “performative male” is on-line shorthand for a disingenuous man who pretends to love issues girls like as a way to earn their belief. There’s additionally a spate of influencers who’ve been known as performative for posting surface-level “ kindness content material.” The phrase is flexible, because it extends to stunts in nationwide politics, grandstanding on social media and even the character of the UN Normal Meeting.
Gerrymander
There is a lengthy nationwide historical past of partisan gerrymandering within the U.S. To retain Republican management of Congress, President Donald Trump has urged maps to be redrawn earlier than the 2026 midterm elections. That is led to GOP strikes in Texas and Indiana to attract districts to their benefit, in addition to a counter effort in Democrat-led California.
Contact grass
The definition of this well-liked web phrase is “to take part in regular actions in the actual world particularly versus on-line experiences and interactions.” It was a severe contender for Merriam-Webster’s phrase of the yr, because it’s used to “describe the aspiration for many individuals to take a break from their digital habit,” Barlow mentioned.
Conclave
A conclave is the centuries-old election of a pope that derives its identify from the Italian “con clave” — which means “with a key” — to underscore that cardinals are sequestered till they discover a winner.
Some realized the which means from the titular movie in 2024. Others discovered in actual time when Pope Leo XIV turned historical past’s first American pope in Could 2025. “It was so occasion particular, however the spike (in searches) was big,” Barlow mentioned.
Tariffs
Initially from Italian and Arabic for “freed from cost,” the phrase entered English centuries in the past. The definition is “a schedule of duties imposed by a authorities on imported or in some international locations exported items.”
Trump boasts that his tariffs defend American industries, lure factories to the U.S., elevate cash for the federal authorities and provides him diplomatic leverage. However they’ve sparked a commerce conflict and in actuality account for lower than 4% of federal income. The tariffs have additionally finished little to dent the federal funds deficit — a staggering $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2025.
Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
Sure, you learn that accurately. “The identify of this lake delighted and baffled us when it began clogging the Prime Lookups record on Merriam-Webster.com,” the dictionary’s editors mentioned. Within the Roblox sport Spelling Bee!, the Massachusetts lake’s identify might be encountered in particular modes. However in New England? It is referred to as Webster Lake.
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Which phrases outlined the final 10 years, in line with Merriam-Webster?
1. 2024: polarization
2. 2023: genuine
3. 2022: gaslighting
4. 2021: vaccine
5. 2020: pandemic
6. 2019: they
7. 2018: justice
8. 2017: feminism
9. 2016: surreal
10. 2015: ism
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