Democracy Dies in Darkness

‘Brain rot’ is Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year

Oxford’s pick joins a list of other dictionaries that found their words of the year online.

4 min
An Oxford English Dictionary is shown at the headquarters of the Associated Press in New York. (Caleb Jones/AP)
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Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year is more than a century old, but that doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly relevant in 2024.

The winner, announced on Monday by the University of Oxford, was “brain rot” — a term that describes the overconsumption of material or content to the point that it deteriorates one’s mental state. (As in, how sludgy you feel after bingeing an entire Netflix show after — or while — doomscrolling.)