I think ADS and Merriam-Webster got it right. "Rage bait" and "parasocial" were the WOTY 2-3 years ago; not that they've gone away, but they were of a previous moment. "Vibe coding" is too specific, and "67" is trying too hard to be Hip and With It.
"Slop" is the word that perfectly captures what so much of 2026 was about, and I heard it from every direction, including people not into tech at all.
nephihaha•3w ago
I've heard of all of these but "rage bait" is the only one I see regularly.
shmerl•3w ago
Another new term - sloperator.
BoneShard•3w ago
microslop
shmerl•3w ago
That one too
robotnikman•3w ago
Me and my coworkers have been using Microslop a lot lately. Usually when Teams is having some kind of annoying issue.
anonnon•3w ago
The wikipedia entry, should it ever get one, ought to prominently feature a photo of Simon Willison.
Yeah, would be good to add "Operator of LLM producing slop. See Slop."
That said, Slop entry itself should be updated with this.
llbbdd•3w ago
This was a way less risky click than I thought it would be.
metalman•3w ago
I have it on good authority from my American cousins living in Pennsylvania, that it is the "American Language", the use of the word "dialect" unknow or foriegn in and of itself, useing the word would cause any estimated cost for anything bieng discussed further to double, and or be the point at which a conversation would faulter in confusion as to who you were trying to call
VierScar•3w ago
English isn't your first language right?
nephihaha•3w ago
That is actually quite old usage, believe it or not. In Germany, when books are translated they often specify whether said book is "aus dem Amerikanischen" (US English) or "aus dem Englischen" (UK English).
ChrisArchitect•3w ago
Oxford 'rage bait' https://corp.oup.com/news/the-oxford-word-of-the-year-2025-i...
Collins 'vibe coding' https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/collins-w...
Cambridge 'parasocial' https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2025/11/18/cambridge-di...
Dictionary.com '67' https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-year-2025/
Merriam-Webster 'slop' https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-of-the-year
Analemma_•3w ago
"Slop" is the word that perfectly captures what so much of 2026 was about, and I heard it from every direction, including people not into tech at all.
nephihaha•3w ago