I’m a word nerd. (You may not be surprised to learn this.) And while I wouldn’t say that dictionaries function as writing bibles, their spelling standardizations stave off chaos. They also capture the social zeitgeist of the time, as exemplified by Merriam-Webster’s nomination of a word to best encapsulate 2025. Its pick : “Slop .” Yes, the very same word we use to describe food not fit for human consumption (but perfectly fine for pigs at a trough) now shoulders the burden of describing a certain kind of AI content. Specifically: “ Digital content of low quality that is produced, usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence .” I have no arguments about that. But what’s wild is how Merriam-Webster has reordered their definition list for “slop.” Here’s how definitions work. When a word has multiple, the first definition listed is what the dictionary editors consider to be the most common association. Merriam-Webster follows this practice—and the new AI definition now takes the top spot as definition 1A. The former top common definition of “a product of little or no value” (aka rubbish) now has been relegated as a broader variation of the AI-variant. As for the definition I grew up with—food waste fed to pigs—Merriam-Webster has bumped that down to definition 1B. Still common, but not as common . (Merriam-Webster could be accused by some of being a bit trendier with its definitions, but that’s a set of debates that I’ll save you from.) Speaking of trends (and other things possibly not fit for human consumption), slop isn’t the only word on the list for top 2025 contenders. Gerrymander , touch grass , performative , tariff , six-seven , conclave , and Lake Char­gog­ga­gogg­man­chaug­ga­gogg­chau­bu­na­gun­ga­maugg . No, that last one is not a typo. Are some of these words actually phrases? Yes. Is the history behind them still interesting? Also yes. You can read more about them in Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word-of-the-year post , and if you want to truly nerd out, look up the first historical uses of words in the Oxford English Dictionary . (I have spent a lot of time doing the latter as a leisure activity.) As for the phenomenon described by this newly elected word of the year, we will likely see things get worse before they get better. I’m anticipating 2026 to be a year where everyone will have to be more careful than ever when seeking out quality, trustworthy information. But at least you can lean on our staff here at PCWorld to cut through the noise around tech.