Die 1889 gegründete American Dialect Society (ADS) hat soeben ihr „Word of the Year“ für 2025 bekannt gegeben. Diesmal fiel die Wahl auf das Substantiv slop.
Die ADS war 1990 die erste US-amerikanische Organisation, die Wörter des Jahres kürte. Heute führt praktisch jedes Wörterbuch einen eigenen derartigen Wettbewerb durch.
In der Pressemitteilung heißt es:
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2025 Word of the Year Is “Slop”
January 9, 2026
New Orleans Marriott–Jan. 9—The American Dialect Society, in its 36th annual words-of-the-year vote, selected slop as the Word of the Year for 2025. More than three hundred attendees took part in the deliberations and voting, in an event hosted in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America’s annual meeting.
The word slop was recognized for its widespread use for low-quality, high-quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI. While AI slop was a nominee in the American Dialect Society’s 2024 Word of the Year vote, in 2025 slop could stand on its own, with the AI context often implicitly understood. Slop was also recognized as a productive combining form to describe anything of little value generated in mass quantities.
Presiding at the Jan. 9 voting session were Ben Zimmer, chair of the ADS New Words Committee, and Dr. Kelly Elizabeth Wright of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Slop isn’t a new word. It has moved from the pig sty, to the algorithm, and now forms new compounds such as sloppunk, slopification, and friend slop,” Dr. Wright said. “This productivity has no end in sight.”
Word of the Year is interpreted in its broader sense as “vocabulary item”—not just words but also phrases, compounds, and affixes. The items do not have to be brand-new, but they have to be newly prominent or notable in the past year.
The vote is the longest-running such vote anywhere, the only one not tied to commercial interests, and the word-of-the-year event up to which all others lead. It is fully informed by the members’ expertise in the study of words, but it is far from a solemn occasion.
Members in the 136-year-old organization include linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, grammarians, historians, researchers, writers, editors, students, and independent scholars. In conducting the vote, they act in fun and do not pretend to be officially inducting words into the English language. Instead, they are highlighting that language change is normal, ongoing, and entertaining.
American Dialect Society voting results
Raw vote totals and percentages of the vote are given after each nomination. In cases requiring a runoff, two figures are given. Winners are indicated by an asterisk.
Word of the year (2025)
- * slop, n: low-quality, high-quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI; also as a combining form for anything lacking value produced in mass quantities (83/161)
- the algorithm, n: essentialized view of online algorithms as a unitary, deterministic entity (17)
- amphifa, n: playful resistance movement, as seen in “Amphibians Against Fascism” in Portland (amphibian + antifa) (3)
- DOGE, v: eliminate or remove due to inefficiency claims from the Department of Government Efficiency (as with federal agencies like USAID and DOGE itself); often get DOGEd (9)
- rage-bait, n: content that intentionally evokes rage, often in a taunting way (67/111)
- reheat nachos, v: redo something (as music), often in an inferior fashion (39)
- 6-7: interjection containing little semantic content, originating from “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla (45)
Most useful
- * “that’s AI”: statement of distrust when determining that something presented as real (as an image) is in fact AI-generated (104)
- clock, v: notice or recognize, often calling attention to a subtext (28)
- diabolical, adj: evil in a fun or shocking way (can be used as an exclamation) (5)
- rage-bait, n: content that intentionally evokes rage, often in a taunting way (51)
- recession indicator, n: signal of an impending economic downturn, often attributed humorously to cultural and fashion trends (31)
- rot, v: lounge and scroll social media (evoking brainrot and bedrot) (26)
- valid crashout, n: justified mental breakdown (19)
Most likely to succeed
- * chopped, adj: ugly, undesirable (128)
- glaze, v: effusively compliment in a cringeworthy fashion (23)
- performative male, n: man who superficially appeals to progressive or sensitive ideals through aesthetic presentation (9)
- unc, n: old person (originally an AAVE shortening of uncle but now gender-neutral (8)
- vibe-coding, n: use of an AI agent to code or assist in coding by using natural-language prompts (93)
Political word of the year
- * icy conditions, n: coded phrase alerting that ICE has been spotted in a neighborhood (83/153)
- disappear, v.: remove, abduct, or arrest (a person), as by a government agent (9)
- DOGE, v: eliminate or remove due to inefficiency claims from the Department of Government Efficiency (as with federal agencies like USAID and DOGE itself); often get DOGEd (49)
- Kavanaugh stop, n: immigration status check in which a person is detained based on social identifiers (referring to Justice Kavanaugh’s opinion in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo) (70/110)
- TACO, n: Trump Always Chickens Out (as in TACO trade) (25)
- vice-signal, v: publicly promote negative or controversial views; antonym of virtue-signal (23)
Digital word of the year
- * slop, n: low-quality, high-quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI; also as a combining form for anything lacking value produced in mass quantities (150)
- the algorithm, n: essentialized view of online algorithms as a unitary, deterministic entity (40)
- clanker, n: pejorative term for AI agents and robots (69)
- Great Meme Reset, n: hypothetical youth movement to reset memes on January 1, 2026 (1)
- Italian brainrot, n: mock-Italian memes with generative AI characters (like Bombardiro Crocodilo and Ballerina Cappuccina) (9)
Informal word of the year
- * 6-7: interjection containing little semantic content, originating from “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla (156)
- big back, n: a person’s large body, or a large-bodied person (also bigbackery, big back behavior) (12)
- body tea, n: attractive physical appearance (reinterpretation of her body tea) (1)
- face card, n: undeniable good looks (as in face card never declined) (8)
- (X), I fear: indication of mock apprehension, used for ironic effect (51)
- smoke, n: drama or aggression (as in don’t want no smoke) (13)
Most creative word of the year
- * reheat nachos, v: redo something (as music), often in an inferior fashion (131/165)
- amphifa, n: playful resistance movement, as seen in “Amphibians Against Fascism” in Portland (amphibian + antifa) (94/96)
- fridge cigarette, n: euphemism for an ice-cold Diet Coke or similar drink taken from a refrigerator as a refreshment (25)
- lowkirkenuinely, adv: in a lowkey genuine manner (lowkey + Kirk + genuinely), also flowkirkenuinely (flow state + Kirk + genuinely) (29)
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ADS-Kür keineswegs „älteste derartige Wahl“
Die ADS führt ihre Wahl zum Wort des Jahres seit 1990 durch. Nach ihren Angaben handelt es sich dabei um „the longest-running such vote anywhere“.
Das gilt jedoch allenfalls für die USA. Die Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) kürt schon 13 Jahre länger die Wörter des Jahres, nämlich seit 1977 regelmäßig und davor schon 1971 einmalig.
Wahlen zum Wort des Jahres sind offenbar eine deutsche Erfindung, die im Lauf von Jahrzehnten Nachahmer in anderen Ländern fand.
Richard Schneider