Oxford’s word of the year is ‘brain rot’. What it means

“Brain rot” has been selected as Oxford’s word of the year for 2024, reflecting growing worries about excessive social media usage and intellectually unstimulating content. The selection process involved over 37,000 public votes from a shortlist of six words compiled by Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary.
This annual recognition, previously awarded to terms like “rizz” and “climate emergency”, seeks to capture the year’s predominant sentiments and developments. The term describes a perceived decline in mental or intellectual capacity, particularly attributed to excessive consumption of trivial or undemanding online material, according to a report from The Guardian.
Oxford University Press noted that the phrase gained significant traction in 2024, specifically addressing worries about the effects of consuming excessive amounts of poor-quality online content, particularly on social media platforms. The term’s origins date back to 1854, first appearing in Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”.
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said, “Brain rot speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time. It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. It’s not surprising that so many voters embraced the term, endorsing it as our choice this year.”
He added, “I also find it fascinating that the word brain rot has been adopted by gen Z and gen Alpha, those communities largely responsible for the use and creation of the digital content the term refers to.”
Other shortlisted contenders included “demure”, “dynamic pricing”, “lore”, “romantasy”, and “slop”. These terms represented various social media trends, pricing strategies, background information, literary genres, and AI-generated content respectively.
The selection panel, led by Countdown’s lexicographer Susie Dent, comprised four experts who determined the shortlist.
The final decision by Oxford University Press considered public voting, commentary, and additional analysis before the Sunday evening announcement.
Previous Oxford winners include “rizz” (2023), “goblin mode” (2022), and “vax” (2021). Cambridge Dictionary chose “manifest” as their word of the year, recording 130,000 website searches for this wellness-related term. Dictionary.com selected “demure” as their winner, influenced by a TikTok trend, while Collins Dictionary chose “brat”, following Charli xcx’s June album release.