December 15, 2025 / 5:12 AM EST / AP
Creepy, zany and demonstrably fake content is often called “slop.” The word’s spread online — helped along by widely available generative artificial intelligence — earned it Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year.
“It’s such an illustrative word,” said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president, in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying and a little bit ridiculous.”
“Slop” dates to the 1700s, originally meaning soft mud, then more generally something of little value. Its definition has swollen to include “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” Barlow described it as “absurd videos, weird advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks real, junky AI-written digital books.”
AI video generators like Sora can produce realistic clips from simple text prompts. But an avalanche of such images on social media — including clips showing celebrities and deceased public figures — has fueled concerns about misinformation, deepfakes and copyright infringement.
Such content isn’t new, but tools are far more accessible and sometimes used politically. Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a manipulated image of the beloved children’s character Franklin reimagined as a grenade-wielding fighter to defend U.S. military actions in Venezuela. The Canadian show Franklin teaches preschoolers about kindness and inclusivity; in Hegseth’s post its 6-year-old main character became a tool to promote violence.
The word “slop” evokes mud-caked pigs at a trough or a bucket of fetid stew — or AI amalgamations of algorithmic bias producing offensive or nonsensical imagery.
Positive “slop”
For some, the word induces dread. But to Barlow, it also suggests hope: the spike in searches shows people are more aware of fake or shoddy content and want the opposite. “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.”
Merriam-Webster’s editors choose the word of the year by reviewing words that have risen in searches and usage, then selecting the one that best reflects the year. “We like to think that we are a mirror for people,” Barlow said.
Selection method
Some words are perennial top lookups but are filtered out when editors pick the most defining term for the year. “‘Ubiquitous,’ ‘paradigm,’ ‘albeit,’ ‘irregardless’ — these are always top lookups because they’re words that are on the edge of our lexicon,” Barlow said. “‘Irregardless’ is a word in the dictionary for one reason: It’s used.”
Merriam-Webster has named a word of the year annually since 2003. Last year, in the wake of the U.S. presidential election and shifting national mood, the dictionary chose “polarization.” A new edition released last month added over 5,000 new words, a rare comprehensive revision of a major dictionary.
Runners-up to “slop”
Rounding out Merriam-Webster’s top words of 2025:
– Six seven: A viral, inside-joke term driven by social media that exploded in summer 2025. It traces to rapper Skrilla’s 2024 song “Doot Doot (6 7).” “It’s self-referential,” Barlow said. “It’s all the rage, but it’s not a defining term.”
– Performative: Used online to describe disingenuous behavior, such as the “performative male” who feigns interest in things to gain trust, or influencers posting surface-level “kindness content.” The term applies broadly to political grandstanding and social-media stunts.
– Gerrymandering: Long part of U.S. partisan history; efforts to redraw maps ahead of the 2026 midterms, including moves in Texas and Indiana and counterefforts in California, kept the term prominent.
– “Touch grass”: An internet phrase meaning to take a break from online life and do normal real-world activities. It was a serious contender for word of the year, reflecting many people’s desire to step back from digital addiction.
– Conclave: The centuries-old sequestered election of a pope; searches spiked after Pope Leo XIV became the first American pope in May 2025. The word comes from Italian “con clave,” meaning “with a key.”
– Tariff: From Italian and Arabic origins meaning “free of charge” centuries ago, the word now denotes government duties on imports or exports. Tariffs featured in national debate as former President Trump promoted them as protective and revenue-generating measures, though they account for less than 4% of federal revenue and did little to reduce a $1.8 trillion federal deficit in fiscal 2025.
– Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg: The famously long Massachusetts lake name clogged Merriam-Webster’s Top Lookups after appearing in the Roblox game Spelling Bee!; in local use it’s often called Webster Lake.
In: Merriam-Webster