Nominations for Words of the Year 2025 follow below.
The final selection will be held at 6:45 pm CST on Friday, Jan. 9 (Carondelet, 3rd floor, New Orleans Marriott).
American Dialect Society 2025 Words of the Year
NOMINATIONS to be voted on by the American Dialect Society, Jan. 9, 2026, New Orleans, LA
MOST CREATIVE WORD OF THE YEAR
- amphifa, n: playful resistance movement, as seen in “Amphibians Against Fascism” in Portland (amphibian + antifa)
- fridge cigarette, n: euphemism for an ice-cold Diet Coke or similar drink taken from a refrigerator as a refreshment
- lowkirkenuinely, adv: in a lowkey genuine manner (lowkey + Kirk + genuinely), also flowkirkenuinely (flow state + Kirk + genuinely)
- reheat nachos, v: redo something in inferior fashion
INFORMAL WORD OF THE YEAR
- 6-7: interjection containing little semantic content, originating from “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla
- big back, n: a person’s large body, or a large-bodied person (also bigbackery, big back behavior)
- body tea, n: attractive physical appearance(reinterpretation of her body tea)
- face card, n: undeniable good looks (as in face card never declined)
- (X), I fear: indication of mock apprehension, used for ironic effect
- smoke, n: drama or aggression (as in don’t want no smoke)
POLITICAL WORD OF THE YEAR
- disappear, v: remove, abduct, or arrest (a person), as by a government agent
- DOGE, v: eliminate or remove due to inefficiency claims from the Department of Government Efficiency (as with federal agencies like USAID and DOGE itself); often get DOGEd
- icy conditions, n: coded phrase alerting that ICE has been spotted in a neighborhood
- Kavanaugh stop, n: immigration status check in which a person is detained based on social identifiers (referring to Justice Kavanaugh’s opinion in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo)
- TACO, n: Trump Always Chickens Out (as in TACO trade)
DIGITAL WORD OF THE YEAR
- the algorithm, n: essentialized view of online algorithms as a unitary, deterministic entity
- clanker, n: pejorative term for AI agents and robots
- Great Meme Reset, n: hypothetical youth movement to reset memes on January 1, 2026
- Italian brainrot, n: mock-Italian memes with generative AI characters (like Bombardiro Crocodilo and Ballerina Cappuccina)
- -slop: combining form that describes anything of low quality (extended from AI slop)
MOST USEFUL
- clock, v: notice or recognize, often calling attention to a subtext
- diabolical, adj: evil in a fun or shocking way (can be used as an exclamation)
- rage-bait, n: content that intentionally evokes rage, often in a taunting way
- rot, v: lounge and scroll social media (evoking brainrot and bedrot)
- valid crashout, n: justified mental breakdown
MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
- chopped, adj: ugly, undesirable
- glaze, v: effusively compliment in a cringeworthy fashion
- performative male, n: man who superficially appeals to progressive or sensitive ideals through aesthetic presentation
- unc, n: old person (originally an AAVE shortening of uncle but now gender-neutral)
- vibe-coding, n: use of an AI agent to code or assist in coding by using natural-language prompts
WORD OF THE YEAR
Nominations to be made at final meeting.