OUP's Word of the Year 2024

Brain rot' takes first place with over 37,000 votes

Calling all word-nerds! The slang term 'brain rot' has been declared Word of the Year for 2024 by the Oxford University Press. Elected out of a six-word shortlist, this contender earned more than 37,000 votes on the OUP website where the poll was put up.

If you're up to date with the internet's latest trends and/or lingo, you must know that you are infected by brain rot. The site defines it as the "supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging".

What makes it special?

Experts at OUP observed that 'brain rot' attracted resurgence this year due to the slang term being able to define the consumption of an excessive amount of low-quality content surfacing online. The frequency of the term's usage rose by 230% between the years 2023 and 2024.

As reported by Oxford, the first recorded usage of the word can be traced back to Henry David Thoreau's 1854 book Walden, in critique of declining intellectual effort: "While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?"

In the mainstream digital expanse, however, the usage of 'brain rot' has taken a lighthearted approach. It fuels a self-deprecating sense of humour, wherein other prominent memes are also brought into the equation. Anyone who has too much awareness of social media's latest rage is labelled as having brain rot.

Do you have brain rot?

If you have a fair idea of what Skibidi Toilet by Alexey Gerasimov is about, you—by all qualifications—have brain rot. For the unversed, Skibidi Toilet is a YouTube series of short videos that centre sentient, humanoid toilets taking over the world. As perplexing as that sounds, it is all the rage over at the 'Gen Alpha' side of social media.

Other than that, phrases like 'only in Ohio', 'gyatt', and 'rizz' make up what is considered brain rot, as these terms are primarily popular in the ever-expanding lingo of the internet. From text references to meme templates, if you are caught up on what's making social media users laugh, congratulations you have brain rot.

The shortlisted

runner-ups

A while back, the Oxford University Press released a list of contenders for Word of the Year 2024 on its website. While 'brain rot' was at the top of the list, five other internet-popular words followed close behind.

The second word happened to be one that has been a top indicator of brain rot levels across social media users. This is none other than 'demure'. According to Oxford, 'demure' is an adjective describing a person who is "reserved or restrained in appearance". The word was popularised by TikTok user Jools Lebron who coined the phrase "very demure, very mindful".

Prepare yourself for a whiplash because the third contender was 'dynamic pricing'—an intellectual pick in a list of prevalent meme language. As per Oxford, this word is defined as "the practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions". As puzzling as this addition is, Oxford justified it by referring to the inflation in concert ticket prices, which eager fans easily fall for.

Next was 'lore', which is described as "a body of (supposed) facts, background information, and anecdotes relating to someone or something, regarded as knowledge required for full understanding or informed discussion of the subject in question". One thing we all know about being chronically online is that every like-minded social media user tends to fish for virality by dropping lore that is sure to get the internet talking. Often, 'lore' is used to describe dense backstories that add depth to the personality of a person or character.

The next contender, 'romantasy', was an exclusive BookTok/Bookstagram win. It is defined as "a genre of fiction combining elements of romantic fiction and fantasy", with fantasy being associated with magic and the supernatural. Many novels written for this genre have attracted fame on the bookish sub-communities of TikTok and Instagram. Some popular series include A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, The Folk of the Air by Holly Black, and The Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros.

And finally, we had 'slop', which is referred to as low-quality AI-generated content that is "distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way". You might have been exposed to absurd AI-generated visual prompts floating around the internet—perhaps disturbingly morphed objects—which indicate that just about anyone is using AI tools to create what they view as art. However, oftentimes the intent fails to materialise, usually due to the shortcomings of AI, resulting in meme-worthy content that the internet gladly clings onto for a long time.