In a year dominated by the boom AI industry and an overwhelming flood of digital creations, Merriam-Webster crowns “slop” as its 2025 Speech of the Year. This four-letter word acts as a judgment on the increasing glut of low-quality content that now clogs screens and social media feeds anywhere.

Originally used in the 1700s to refer to soft mud and in the 1800s to describe food waste or trash, “slop” now has a decidedly 21st-century twist. Merriam-Webster defines it as “digital content of low quality that is usually produced in quantity by artificial intelligence.”

Think funny videos, glitched-out ads, fake news that almost fool you, crappy AI-authored books and, yes, talking animals. Today, even luxury brands like Valentino pushing “slop” ads.

“Like slime, sludge and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you don’t want to touch,” Merriam-Webster quipped in its announcement, capturing a widespread cultural mood that’s partly dismay, partly anger at today’s deteriorating AI landscape.

Also read: $1B for AI Slop? Why Disney Is Funding and Bringing Iconic Characters to OpenAI

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2025: A year defined by the AI ​​content deluge

Tech platforms, large and small, are grappling with the influx of generative AI within 2025, from deepfakes of clickbait-style creations that prioritize quantity over value. The wave of Back up slop shows not only how easy it is to create content at scale, but how small it can often be meaningful to human audiences.

Merriam-Webster editors say the word is unique because it captures a cultural trend and a collective sentiment — one that’s less about fear of technology and more about derision of how mindless content spreads.

Some words that form in 2025

While slop took the top spot, Merriam-Webster also highlighted other terms that defined the discourse of the year, including:

• 67a viral slang term born on social media, enjoyed by Gen Alpha with a strong inside joke.
• Performativeused to refer to behavior done for show or clout rather than substance.
• Touch the grassa phrase that encourages people to disconnect from digital obsession and reconnect with the real world.
• Gerrymander and TARIFFwords that revolve around political and economic topics.

These choices reflect the breadth of public interest in 2025, from internet culture to politics to how we live with technology.

A global linguistic snapshot of the past year

Merriam-Webster is not the only publication to weigh in on the language of the year. Here are other 2025 Words of the Year:

• Oxford University Press selected”anger bait,” which promotes content designed to spark outrage and engagement online.
• Macquarie Dictionary in Australia emphasized “Back up slop,” which parallels the Merriam-Webster theme of digital clutter.
• Cambridge Dictionary selected”parasocial,” which focuses on the one-sided relationship between online personalities and AI chatbots.
• Dictionary.com accepted slang term “67,” a viral and almost meaningless expression that captured a slice of youth culture.

Together, these choices mirror a generation negotiating fatigue, excitement and frustration with the digital world.

Why is this important?

To a tech-savvy audience, slop isn’t just a funny word; it’s a symptom of deeper trends in AI deployment, content moderation and cultural perception. Our CNET experts cover the AI ​​slop in depth, from determine what it is and how it manifests on the internet and on commercialsto analyze how to make social media a wasteland.

As tools for automatic production become more common and easy to use, the signal-to-noise ratio in digital spaces becomes more clear and important. Whether you’re building apps, curating feeds or trying to avoid the next wave of meaningless memes, the 2025 Word of the Year is a reminder that quality still matters and sometimes language itself can call that out perfectly.

Read more: Why Time Magazine Named ‘AI Builders’ Person of the Year