Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year is ‘slop’

Creepy, zany, and demonstrably fake content is often called "slop." The word's proliferation online, in part thanks to the widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence, landed it on Merriam-Webster's 2025 word of the year. "It's such an illustrative word," said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster's president, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of the announcement. "It's part of a transformative technology, AI, and it's something that people have found fascinating, annoying, and a little bit ridiculous." "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 to mean "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence." In other words, "you know, absurd videos, weird advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks real, junky AI-written digital books," Barlow said. AI video generators like Sora have wowed with their ability to quickly create realistic clips based merely on text prompts. But a flood of these images on social media, including clips depicting celebrities and deceased public figures, has raised worries about misinformation, deepfakes, and copyright. The word "slop" evokes unpleasant images of mud-caked pigs crowding around a dirty trough, or perhaps a bucket of steaming, fetid stew. Or AI amalgamations of algorithmic biases laden with offensive or nonsensical imagery. For some, the word induces dread. But to Barlow, it 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." 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. "We like to think that we are a mirror for people," Barlow said. This article was provided by The Associated Press.