Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year is ‘slop’

Merriam-Webster has settled on a word that represents 2025 — and that word is “slop.” The dictionary-maker defines “slop” as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence,” something that many people have become familiar with as AI-generated content permeates the internet.

This year, some of the most popular sites on the web took steps to stave off the infestation of AI slop, including YouTube, Wikipedia, Spotify, and Pinterest. But others are embracing it, as both Meta and OpenAI made apps dedicated to streams of AI-generated videos that you can scroll through and share. Even Disney has struck a deal to bring Sora-generated videos to its streaming platform while taking a billion-dollar equity stake in its owner and ChatGPT operator OpenAI.

“Like slime, sludge, and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you don’t want to touch,” Merriam-Webster writes. “The word sends a little message to AI: when it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes you don’t seem too superintelligent.”

Merriam-Webster highlights some other words and phrases that were prevalent in 2025 as well, including “touch grass,” “tariff,” “performative,” and “gerrymander.”