Oxford University Press named “rage bait” as its 2025 Word of the Year, recognizing its surge in usage as online content deliberately designed to provoke anger and outrage to boost engagement. This selection reflects a digital landscape increasingly shaped by provocative content intended to trigger emotional reactions.
Oxford University Press has selected “rage bait” as the Word of the Year for 2025, marking a significant linguistic reflection of contemporary online interactions. Defined as online material intentionally crafted to spark anger or outrage through frustration, provocation, or offense, rage bait aims to increase traffic and engagement on social media and websites.
The term saw its usage triple during the past year, outpacing other candidates such as “aura farming” and “biohack.” It stems from the combination of “rage,” meaning intense anger, and “bait,” indicating something used to lure or provoke. This aligns it with the concept of “clickbait,” but with a distinct focus on eliciting emotional, particularly angry, responses.
Oxford’s president of languages, Casper Grathwohl, explained that rage bait highlights the digital age’s cyclical dynamic, where outrage sparks engagement, algorithms amplify the content, and users become mentally exhausted. This choice underscores cultural concerns about digital wellbeing, social discourse, and the ethics of online content creation. Past words of the year have similarly captured internet and societal moods, such as “selfie,” “post-truth,” and “toxic.”
Sources: Oxford University Press, BBC, New York Times, Indian Express