'Special fund' crowned Germany's worst word in 2025

"Sondervermögen," meaning special fund, has been picked as Germany's Worst Word of 2025 for its "misleading" use, especially by the government in Berlin last year.

The term was thrown around a lot last year, as the government pushed through plans to loosen Germany's debt rules and spend hundreds of billions to boost the ailing economy.

The deal between the conservatives and the Social Democrats created a €500-billion ($583-billion) so-called special fund for investments in infrastructure and climate-related measures to be spent over the next decade.

But the jury at Marburg's Philipps University argued that the way the term had been used in public discourse last year obscured its actual meaning - namely taking on debt.

While in everyday language, the term "special fund" refers to a specific amount of property that is separate from total assets, in legal and economic jargon it is used to refer to a supplementary budget tied to specific objectives funded by debt.

Since many citizens understand the word in terms of its everyday meaning, the widespread use of the term to refer to the billions in new government debt resulted in a "misleading" and "euphemistic" effect, according to the jury.

The independent jury is made up of four linguists and a journalist as well as another member that changes every year.

Each year, members choose the worst word of the year - known as the un-word of the year - among terms and expressions found to violate the principles of human dignity or democracy, to discriminate against social groups, or which are simply thought to be euphemistic or misleading.