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Merriam-Webster has announced "slop" as its 2025 Word of the Year, reflecting the surge of low-quality digital content generated by artificial intelligence. Defined as "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence," slop encapsulates the absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, and fake news that have flooded social media feeds this year.
According to Merriam-Webster, the term slop originally referred to "soft mud" in the 1700s and later evolved to mean "food waste" and "rubbish." In 2025, it has come to represent the overwhelming presence of AI-generated content that many find both fascinating and frustrating. Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster's president, explained that the word slop highlights the limitations of AI when it comes to replacing human creativity.
The selection of slop as the Word of the Year is based on a significant increase in searches and usage. The dictionary's editors chose it to reflect the year's trends and events. Other notable words and phrases from 2025 include gerrymander, touch grass, performative, tariff, and six seven.
The rise of AI video generators like Sora has contributed to the proliferation of slop, raising concerns about misinformation and deepfakes. Despite the negative connotations, Barlow believes that the word slop also signifies a desire for genuine and authentic content in a digital age dominated by AI.