'Rage bait' is Oxford Word of the Year 2025, reflecting a year shaped by online anger, unrest, manipulation

Oxford University Press (OUP) has selected ‘rage bait’ as the Oxford Word of the Year 2025, highlighting the growing influence of online content and engagement designed to spark anger and social unrest. The term was chosen after a public vote that drew over 30,000 participants, sentiment of public commentary, along with analysis of OUP's lexical data.

The top three contenders for 2025 were — rage bait, aura farming and biohack. However, the usage of rage bait rose nearly threefold in 2025, amid a news cycle dominated by societal unrest and debates about the regulation of online content, and concerns over digital wellbeing.

The use of rage bait has evolved this year 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, it said.

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 account’.

Rage bait is a compound of the words "rage" (violent outburst of anger) and "bait" (an attractive morsel of food) -- both well-established terms in English dating back to the Middle English times.

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"As technology and artificial intelligence become ever more embedded into our daily lives-from deepfake celebrities and AI-generated influencers to virtual companions and dating platforms-there is no denying that 2025 has been a year defined by questions around who we truly are; both online and offline.

"The fact that the word rage bait exists and has seen such a dramatic surge in usage means we’re increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics we can be drawn into online," said Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages.

Last year’s word, brain rot, highlighted the mental exhaustion, associated with endless scrolling. The OUP said that these two terms chart a cycle of outrage, amplification, and burnout shaped by platform incentives.

This is the fourth year Oxford has opened voting to the public. The Oxford Word of the Year recognises expressions that reflect significant cultural themes. Previous winners include goblin mode (2022), rizz (2023) and brain rot (2024).