Oxford University Press names "rage bait" as word of the year 2025

Oxford University Press announced "rage bait" is its 2025 word of the year on Sunday.

The compound of the words "rage" and "bait" has seen a "three-fold increase in usage" over the past year, "suggesting that more people than ever are aware of the negative effects that online life can bring alongside all the positives," per an online post by the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The OED defines the noun as online content that's "deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account."