Refusing to be drawn into their fray by Oxford’s choice of ‘rage bait’ for word of the year, Merriam-Webster has just announced their own word of the year: slop. I wold have gone with sloppy, but that was pretty much 2025 in a nutshell.

We define slop as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” All that stuff dumped on our screens, captured in just four letters: the English language came through again.

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.

The direction we’re headed in: it isn’t a good one. Other words Merriam-Website considered:

GERRYMANDER – to divide a state, school district, etc. into political units or election districts that give one group or political party an unfair advantage
TOUCH GRASS – to participate in normal activities in the real world especially as opposed to online experiences and interactions)
TARIFF – a schedule of duties imposed by a government on imported or in some countries exported goods
6-7 – mostly used as an interjection — such as a thing you might chant, for no particular reason
PERFORMATIVE – made or done for show — as to bolster one’s own image or make a positive impression on others

Wow, every single one of those managed to depress me even more than the last. Honestly, I’m not even sure we could turn this boat around if we wanted to. I feel like our best bet may just be collectively praying for an asteroid. 2026, though — it’s really going to be our year, isn’t it?!