From slop to demure, brain rot to lore, meet the six words of 2024 competing for Oxford Word of the Year

For the third consecutive year, Oxford University Press (OUP) is providing word lovers everywhere with the opportunity to vote for its annual Word of the Year. This year's shortlist, chosen to reflect some of the moods and conversations that have shaped 2024, has been compiled by OUP's experts following analysis of its 25-billion-word corpus of language data.

Encapsulating themes from finances to fantasy, and the evolving impact of technology on society, the competing six words and expressions have seen a notable spike in usage and gained new prominence in 2024. The shortlist, now open to public vote, is as follows:

·         Lore (n.): 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.

·         Brain rot (n.): Supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration. 

·         Dynamic pricing (n.): The practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions; in particular, the charging of a higher price at a time of greater demand. 

·         Demure (adj.): Of a person: reserved or restrained in appearance or behaviour. Of clothing: not showy, ostentatious, or overly revealing.

·         Slop (n.): Art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic, or inaccurate.

·         Romantasy (n.): A genre of fiction combining elements of romantic fiction and fantasy, typically featuring themes of magic, the supernatural, or adventure alongside a central romantic storyline. 

Speaking about this year's selection, Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, said:

"Since 2004, we've aimed to provide a window into language and cultural change through the Oxford Word of the Year. The 2024 shortlist represents a snapshot of the topics that have caught our interest and imagination and kept us talking. Capturing themes from finances to fantasy, what is particularly unique about this year's selection is the range of words associated with bygone eras that have slid back into public consciousness – in some cases after being adopted and retooled by online communities.

"We are excited to once again invite the public to help us choose Word of the Year. Everyone experiences words that resonate with them, that encapsulate how they feel about a certain time. To see people sharing those experiences as part of Word of the Year has been both insightful and deeply moving. The words we choose reflect who we are and remind us of the power that language holds to shape the world around us."

 

Voting will remain open for two weeks, closing on Thursday 28 November. OUP will conduct a last detailed analysis, considering corpus data, votes, and public commentary on the finalists, before naming the definitive Word of the Year for 2024 on 2 December.

This year marks two decades of Oxford Word of the Year, and the third time that people across the world have had the opportunity to vote for their Word of the Year, with the public crowning goblin mode their winner in 2022, and rizz in 2023. From podcast (US) and sudoku (UK) in 2005, to selfie (2013) 😂 (2015) and climate emergency (2019), Word of the Year continues to highlight the language that has shaped conversations and reflected the cultural shifts, patterns, and sentiments of a particular year.

Voting is now open on OUP.com website closing at 15:00 (GMT) / 10:00 (EST) Thursday 28 November 2024. The winner will be announced on Monday 2 December 2024.

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