It’s official: 2025 was the year of slop.

Merriam-Webster just announced in a post that its “human editors” have chosen “slop” as the 2025 Word of the Year.

The dictionary’s official definition of the word is “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence,” a far cry from its original meaning. When the term was first coined in the 1700s, slop meant “soft mud,” before slowly morphing into a synonym for “rubbish.” Today, it’s the perfect four-letter word for the state of the internet.

“In 2025, amid all the talk about AI threats, slop set a tone that’s less fearful, more mocking,” the dictionary’s post reads. “The word sends a little message to AI: when it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes you don’t seem too superintelligent.”

The concept of slop dominated the collective consciousness this........

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