Here's what Merriam-Webster named its word of the year for 2025

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Once used to describe watery leftovers or animal feed, the word "slop" has taken on a new meaning in the age of generative artificial intelligence — one significant enough for Merriam-Webster dictionary to crown it the 2025 Word of the Year.

To select the word of the year, the dictionary's editors review data about which words have risen in search results and usage. Then they come to a consensus about which word best reflects the span of the year.

Slop is the word of the year for 2025

Big picture view:

"Slop" was first used in the 1700s to mean soft mud, but it evolved more generally to mean something of little value. 

The definition has since expanded and now also means "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence."

What They’re Saying: According to Merriam-Webster, the flood of slop in 2025 included "absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books, ‘workslop’ reports that waste coworkers’ time… and lots of talking cats. People found it annoying, and people ate it up."

In a photo illustration, a Merriam-Webster's dictionary is seen placed on a lawn on January 11, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Credit: illustration by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

"It’s such an illustrative word," Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster's president, said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s announcement. "It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying and a little bit ridiculous."

But to Barlow, it also brings a sense of hope. The dictionary's president says the spike in searches for the word reflects that people have grown more aware of fake or shoddy content, and desire the inverse.

"They want things that are real, they want things that are genuine," he said. "It’s almost a defiant word when it comes to AI. When it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes AI actually doesn’t seem so intelligent."

Other top words of 2025

Dig deeper:

Other top words of 2025 included 6-7, the viral term that exploded in popularity over the summer. 

It’s an inside joke with an unclear meaning, driven by social media. It can be traced back to rapper Skrilla’s 2024 song "Doot Doot (6 7)."

In addition, other words made the list, such as "performative," "gerrymander," "touch grass," "conclave" and tariffs.

The backstory:

The dictionary has selected one word every year since 2003 to capture and make sense of the current moment. Last year, shortly after the U.S. presidential election and amid the shifting national mood, Merriam-Webster chose the word " polarization."

1. 2024: polarization
2. 2023: authentic
3. 2022: gaslighting
4. 2021: vaccine
5. 2020: pandemic
6. 2019: they
7. 2018: justice
8. 2017: feminism
9. 2016: surreal
10. 2015: ism

In September, Merriam-Webster revised and updated one of its popular dictionaries with the addition of 5,000 new words, including "dad bod" and "hard pass."

RELATED: 'Hard pass' and 'dad bod' among 5,000 words added to Merriam-Webster's 'Collegiate' dictionary

The 12th edition of "Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary" is the first update in 22 years and was released on Nov. 18.