In a year dominated by the booming AI industry and an overwhelming flood of digital creations, Merriam-Webster has crowned "slop" as its 2025 Word of the Year. This four-letter word acts as a judgment on the sprawling glut of low-quality content now clogging screens and social media feeds everywhere.
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Originally used in the 1700s to refer to soft mud and in the 1800s to describe food waste or rubbish, "slop" now takes on a decidedly 21st-century twist. Merriam-Webster defines it as "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence."
Think ridiculous videos, glitched-out ads, fake news that almost fools you, crappy AI-authored books and, yes, talking animals. Now, even luxury brands like Valentino are pushing out "slop" ads.
"Like slime, sludge and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you don't want to touch," Merriam-Webster quipped in its announcement, capturing a widespread cultural mood that's part bemusement, part exasperation with today's worsening AI landscape.
Read also: $1B for AI Slop? Why Disney Is Spending Big and Bringing Its Iconic Characters to OpenAI
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2025: A year defined by the AI content deluge
Tech platforms, both large and small, have grappled with the surge of generative AI content in 2025, from deepfakes to clickbait-style creations that prioritize volume over value. The wave of AI slop reflects not just how easy it's become to generate content at scale, but also how little of it often resonates meaningfully with human audiences.
Merriam-Webster's editors say the word stands out because it captures both a cultural trend and a collective sentiment -- one that's less about fear of technology and more about poking fun at how mindlessly content can spread.
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