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Merriam-Webster’s 2025 Word of the Year: “Slop” Reflects the Rise of Low-Quality AI-Generated Content
Like most tools, generative AI models can be misused, and when the misuse becomes a cultural phenomenon, it’s likely to catch the attention of major dictionaries. Recently, Merriam-Webster announced that “slop” is its 2025 Word of the Year, reflecting the term’s widespread use to describe the flood of low-quality AI-generated content that has spread across social media, search results, and the web at large. The dictionary defines slop as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.”
According to Merriam-Webster President Greg Barlow, “It’s such an illustrative word. It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying, and a little bit ridiculous.” The selection of “slop” as the Word of the Year is based on data showing a significant increase in searches for the term, indicating growing awareness among users that they are encountering fake or shoddy content online.
The Evolution of “Slop” and Its Connection to AI
The term “slop” originally entered the English language in the 1700s to mean soft mud, and over time, it evolved to describe food waste fed to pigs, and eventually came to mean rubbish or products of little value. The new AI-related definition builds on this history of describing something unwanted and unpleasant. As Barlow told the Associated Press, the spike in searches for “slop” reflects growing awareness among users that they are encountering fake or shoddy content online, highlighting the need for critical evaluation of online information.
Dictionaries and the Impact of AI on Language
Dictionaries have been tracking AI’s impact on language for the past few years, with Cambridge having selected “hallucinate” as its 2023 word of the year due to the tendency of AI models to generate plausible-but-false information. This trend extends to online culture in general, which is ripe with new coinages, such as “rage bait” and “parasocial,” which describe content designed to provoke anger for engagement and one-sided relationships between fans and celebrities or influencers, respectively.
For more information on Merriam-Webster’s 2025 Word of the Year and the impact of AI on language, visit Merriam-Webster’s website or read the full article Here
Image Credit: arstechnica.com