Welcome to our 16th annual list of “words to retire”.
2025 has been a year.
This time, the words we’ve selected don’t just reflect the passing of time; they are a testament to a year of collective cultural fatigue. They fall into three distinct categories that together create a concise reflection of 2025’s vibe.
- Division: The first group captures the fractured state of discourse—vocabulary of outrage and accusation, deliberately used to create division, spread dangerous ideologies and misinformation, and demean others: rage bait, weaponization, manosphere, chopped.
- Nonsense: Thanks to the chaotic, often meaningless, chorus courtesy of Gen Z and the endless TikTok scroll. I mean, it may feel cringe for an adult to drop 6-7, but we’re not just cooking—we’re mogging—and we’ve got the receipts to prove it.
- Slop: Merriam-Webster’s Word of the 2025, a terse, perfect term for the relentless, mediocre content generated by AI that is clogging our feeds and dulling our collective intelligence. We are drowning in more crappy content than we can even consume.
Fellow communicators, we are the makers and tellers of stories—and that’s a powerful responsibility. It’s our duty to send words into the world with care, intention, and humanity.
Let 2026 be filled with words that uplift, help us know each other better, and create stronger communities.
Here’s the full list:
- Rage bait
- Weaponization
- Manosphere
- Chopped
- 6-7
- Cringe
- Cooking
- Mogging
- Receipts
- Slop
