Oxford selects the 2025 word of the year!

Aiming to highlight words that read the society's mood, agenda, and relationship with technology through language throughout the year, Oxford University Press has selected the term "rage bait" as the word for 2025, which closely depicts the attention economy of the digital age.

Rage bait stands out as an internet term that can be summarized as "content using anger as bait." According to Oxford's definition, it refers to a type of online content designed to be annoying, provocative, or offensive, aiming to elicit a response from users in the form of anger, reaction, or provoked emotions.

These contents are often produced to generate traffic and engagement. The concept is a combination of the words "rage" (intense anger) and "bait" (lure); while it is similar to the term clickbait, rage bait more specifically focuses on triggering anger.