Every year, Oxford University Press chooses one word or expression that represents what people have been experiencing and talking about. In 2025, the chosen expression was ‘’rage bait’’, a term describing a type of content that’s on the internet and designed to make people feel angry on purpose. So, let’s learn more about this expression, shall we?
‘’Rage bait’’
Oxford University Press announced that ‘’rage bait’’ is the word of 2025. This expression refers to a content on the internet with the intention of provoking anger, frustration, or outrage. These posts are created intentionally to upset people.
The idea behind this type of content is very simple: when something makes us feel angry, we tend to react more. We comment, share, criticize, or argue about it. All of this makes the post have more engagement and platforms show it even more. So, that anger means more visits and more interaction for the person who created the content.
Oxford explained that the use of ‘’rage bait’’ grew three times in the last year, which suggests that more people realize this type of content exists and that its aim is to generate strong emotions.
Why Oxford chose ‘’rage bait’’
Oxford experts pointed out that the finalist words of each year reflect issues and conversations that have marked the last months. In the case of the current year, 2025, the world experienced many intense debates and a great amount of information was posted on social media.
So, they decided that the popular ‘’rage bait’’ shows an important change: we talk more about how attention on the internet works, how we give it, and how others try to get it.
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, explained that the internet used to focus on making people curious enough to click. But now there has been a major shift: instead of curiosity, many posts now try to manipulate emotions, especially through content that causes outrage.
He added that this change shows how humans are trying to understand what it means to live in a world strongly influenced by technology and by online cultures that often push things to extremes.
Unexpected origins
Even though ‘’rage bait’’ is completely associated with social media now, its first use didn’t have to do with the internet. In 2002, the expression appeared in a Usenet message to describe how a driver could deliberately provoke anger on another driver.
The idea of provoking a reaction of anger is exactly the same now. With the passage of time, the term was used as a way to talk about viral publications that bother or divide people.
Other finalist words
Apart from ‘’rage bait’’, there were two other expressions that nearly won:
- Aura farming: This expression refers to creating an attractive or impressive personal image by acting in ways that subtly suggest confidence, coolness, or mystery.
- Biohack: This verb refers to trying to improve mental or physical performance or health by changing diet, exercise, lifestyle, or by using substances or technology.
Oxford explained that the Word of the Year can be just one word or an expression, as long as it represents a single idea.
2024 Word of the Year
In 2024, the Word of the Year was ‘’brain rot’’, which described how a person’s mind can feel drained after consuming too much trivial online content.
Oxford pointed out that “brain rot” and “rage bait” are connected. First comes the content designed to make people angry, then the emotional reactions, then the algorithms that push the content even further. This cycle can leave people mentally tired and overwhelmed.
So, now that you know what ‘’rage bait’’ means, you can protect your attention, your emotions, and your mental well-being while navigating the digital world.