Take a deep breath and think of your happy place: “rage bait” is the 2025 Oxford Word of the Year.
After three days of online voting by more than 30,000 participants, Oxford University Press announced that “rage bait” beat out shortlist rivals “aura farming” and “biohack.” Oxford defines “rage bait” as online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted to increase traffic or engagement. When internet material produces a charged, negative emotional reaction from viewers—intentionally or not—it generally qualifies as rage bait.
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages at Oxford University Press, notes that before the term entered English around 2002, the internet aimed to grab attention by sparking curiosity for clicks. “Now we’ve seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond,” he says.
The phrase gained visibility this year after actress Jennifer Lawrence revealed she keeps a secret TikTok account she uses to “get in fights” with strangers. Oxford calls rage bait “the internet’s most effective hook,” designed to stimulate anger that exists in many forms across people. The organization frames 2025 as a year defined by humanity’s transformation in a tech-driven world, citing deepfake celebrities, AI-generated influencers, and virtual companions as examples of technology seeping into our minds and emotions.
Oxford also raises the possibility of being “rage baited” by chatbots like ChatGPT or of the chatbot itself acting as rage bait. Beyond machine-learning technologies, general social unrest and growing concerns about digital wellbeing contributed to a spike in usage of the term in 2025, according to Oxford’s language experts. Their shortlist brief notes that media trends often reward rage bait with engagement.
For the past few years Oxford has used social media to gather public opinion on its Word of the Year shortlist; this year it ran a digital campaign on Instagram personifying the three shortlisted words. “Rage bait” was shown as an anonymous figure in an alien-like lizard mask with the deliberately misspelled blurb, “I’m glad your mad!” “Biohack” appeared as a robotic, green-juice–drinking woman who asks, “have you ever tried to edit your lifespan?” — played by London-based actor and model Brenda Finn — hinting at the global popularity of anti-aging practices and cosmetic procedures. “Aura farming,” defined as cultivating an attractive or charismatic public persona, was portrayed as a stylish influencer with a whimsical “to-do” list that includes banning fluorescent lighting, establishing universal basic income for microinfluencers, and teaching people to ride a bike without hands.
Is it any surprise that last year’s Oxford Word of the Year was “brainrot”?
