‘Slop’: Merriam-Webster’s word of the year criticizes junk content created by artificial intelligence

Merriam-Webster, the publishing house behind the leading English dictionary in the United States, has chosen “slop” as its word of the year for 2025. In the current cultural context, the term is used to describe low-quality digital content produced en masse using artificial intelligence.

Slop refers to the proliferation of absurd (and sometimes disturbing) videos and images in social media: from an emotional support kangaroo that isn’t allowed to travel by plane, to a baby with its own podcast, a cat climbing the Eiffel Tower, or a golden statue of Donald Trump in Gaza. “All that stuff dumped on our screens, captured in just four letters: the English language came through again. Like slime, sludge, and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you don’t want to touch. Slop oozes into everything”, Merriam-Webster explained regarding the name.

In the 18th century, the word was used to refer to soft mud, but in the 19th century it came to mean food waste. Over time, the term acquired a broader meaning and began to be used to describe something of little or no value. According to the dictionary’s editors, the choice of slop as word of the year was meant to underline that artificial intelligence is still far from being a real threat to human creativity, largely because of the low quality of the content it generates. Still, in some cases, its impact has extended beyond the occasional poorly made image that goes viral online.

Just as social media did in previous years, artificial intelligence has transformed the political landscape. In January 2024, an investigation was launched into an AI-generated robocall that mimicked Joe Biden’s voice and urged voters to abstain from the New Hampshire primaries and “save their vote” for the November general election. The presidential campaign also saw the spread of manipulated images of Kamala Harris, including one depicting her addressing a communist audience and shared by Trump, as well as other images portraying her in humiliating scenarios.

In its count of the most searched words in 2025 on its digital platform, Merriam-Webster also highlighted “tariff,” due to President Trump’s current trade war, and “gerrymander,” a political maneuver that both Republicans and Democrats have employed in recent months.

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