‘Rage bait’ is the Oxford English Dictionary publisher’s Word of the Year for 2025.
Oxford University Press analysis showed use of the phrase has tripled in the past 12 months. After ‘brain rot’ took home the 2024 crown, Oxford University Press’ 2025 shortlist included three contenders — ‘rage bait,’ ‘aura farming,’ and ‘biohack.’
According to Oxford University Press, rage bait is defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.”
Explaining its decision, Oxford University Press said: “with 2025’s news cycle dominated by social unrest, debates about the regulation of online content, and concerns over digital wellbeing, our experts noticed that the use of rage bait this year has evolved to signal a deeper shift in how we talk about attention — both how it is given and how it is sought after — engagement, and ethics online. The word has tripled in usage in the last 12 months.”
In the world of entertainment, DC Universe steward James Gunn added ragebaiting monkeys to this year’s Superman film. In the movie, Lex Luthor’s army of monkeys post negative and inflammatory content about Superman online in a plot point widely interpreted as a commentary on online fan culture. In a Superman gag reel, Gunn himself was seen playing the role of the internet monkeys.
Get the #Superman gag reel, director’s commentary, and extra features now on digital! pic.twitter.com/UrZdpt6mcU
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) September 23, 2025
Rage bait was first used online in a posting on Usenet in 2002 as a way to designate a particular type of driver reaction to being flashed at by another driver requesting to pass them, introducing the idea of deliberate agitation, Oxford University Press said. The word then evolved into internet slang used to describe viral tweets, often to critique entire networks of content that determine what is posted online, like platforms, creators, and trends.
Oxford University Press continued: “Since then, it has become shorthand for content designed to elicit anger by being frustrating, offensive, or deliberately divisive in nature, and a mainstream term referenced in newsrooms across the world and discourse amongst content creators. It’s also a proven tactic to drive engagement, commonly seen in performative politics. As social media algorithms began to reward more provocative content, this has developed into practices such as rage-farming, which is a more consistently applied attempt to manipulate reactions and to build anger and engagement over time by seeding content with rage bait, particularly in the form of deliberate misinformation of conspiracy theory-based material.”
Perhaps the biggest question in all this is, well, rage bait is two words, right? The Oxford Word of the Year can be a singular word or expression, “which our lexicographers think of as a single unit of meaning,” Oxford University Press explained.
Rage bait, then, is a compound of the words rage, meaning ‘a violent outburst of anger,’ and bait, ‘an attractive morsel of food.’ Clickbait, which is etymologically related to rage bait, remains one word, however.
Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, commented: “As technology and artificial intelligence become ever more embedded into our daily lives — from deepfake celebrities and AI-generated influencers to virtual companions and dating platforms — there’s no denying that 2025 has been a year defined by questions around who we truly are; both online and offline.
“The fact that the word rage bait exists and has seen such a dramatic surge in usage means we’re increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics we can be drawn into online. Before, the internet was focused on grabbing our attention by sparking curiosity in exchange for clicks, but now we’ve seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond. It feels like the natural progression in an ongoing conversation about what it means to be human in a tech-driven world — and the extremes of online culture.
“Where last year’s choice, brain rot, captured the mental drain of endless scrolling, rage bait shines a light on the content purposefully engineered to spark outrage and drive clicks. And together, they form a powerful cycle where outrage sparks engagement, algorithms amplify it, and constant exposure leaves us mentally exhausted. These words don’t just define trends; they reveal how digital platforms are reshaping our thinking and behaviour.”
Previous Oxford Word of the Year winners include last year’s ‘brain rot,’ ‘rizz’ (2023), ‘goblin mode’ (2022), and ‘vax’ (2021). Oxford University Press skipped 2020, which was dominated by COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
