{"id":1428931,"date":"2025-12-16T16:42:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/GT5KmMQ8JuE4qzKZ4Lqjqh"},"modified":"2025-12-16T16:42:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:42:25","slug":"merriam-websters-word-of-the-year-is-slop-summing-up-12-months-that-have-been-especially-soggy-with-ai-generated-content-in-only-four-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/merriam-websters-word-of-the-year-is-slop-summing-up-12-months-that-have-been-especially-soggy-with-ai-generated-content-in-only-four-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Merriam-Webster&#8217;s word of the year is &#8216;Slop,&#8217; summing up 12 months that have been especially soggy with AI-generated content in only four letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>In a move likely unsurprising to regular readers of this fine publication, Merriam-Webster&#8217;s word of the year is <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/wordplay\/word-of-the-year\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216;Slop&#8217;<\/a> (via <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/merriam-webster-dictionary-word-year-2025-slop-2dffb2379cac6001aa30e148669e3393\" target=\"_blank\">The Associated Press<\/a>). In a blog post, the dictionary and reference book company stresses the fact this word was in fact chosen by its &#8220;human editors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Merriam-Webster defines &#8216;slop&#8217; in the context of 2025 as &#8220;digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.&#8221; Wow, say how you really feel, tomes. The blog post goes on to reflect on how inescapable this tidal wave of brain rotting content has been online, quipping, &#8220;People found it annoying, and people ate it up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, such a blog post wouldn&#8217;t be complete without a brief etymology lesson. Continuing with the not-so-subtle digs at AI-generated content, Merriam-Webster goes on to explain, &#8220;The original sense of the word, in the 1700s, was &#8216;soft mud.&#8217; In the 1800s it came to mean &#8216;food waste&#8217; (as in &#8216;pig slop&#8217;), and then more generally, &#8216;rubbish or &#8216;a product of little or no value.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alongside Slop&#8217;s dubious headlining honour, the terms &#8216;gerry mander,&#8217; &#8216;<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/gaming-industry\/touch-grass-read-a-book-throw-a-ball-get-tackled-once-in-a-while-epic-games-art-director-and-og-system-shock-2-artist-says-the-best-looking-videogames-are-designed-by-people-who-dont-just-look-at-videogames\/\" target=\"_blank\">touch grass<\/a>&#8216;, &#8216;performative&#8217;, &#8216;<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/hardware\/trump-announces-new-100-percent-china-tariff-along-with-export-controls-on-any-and-all-critical-software-over-rare-earth-spat-as-chinese-gov-says-it-doesnt-want-a-trade-war-but-is-not-afraid-of-one\/\" target=\"_blank\">tariff<\/a>&#8216;, &#8216;six seven&#8217;, and &#8216;conclave&#8217; also get a moment to shine. All of these terms were standouts in the online dictionary&#8217;s lookup data for 2025, though I&#8217;ve skipped one intriguing inclusion as it really deserves its own line break. Are you ready for this?<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Lake Char\u00adgog\u00adga\u00adgogg\u00adman\u00adchaug\u00adga\u00adgogg\u00adchau\u00adbu\u00adna\u00adgun\u00adga\u00admaugg&#8217; is derived from the Nipmuc people&#8217;s name for Webster Lake, which flows across south central Massachusetts&#8217; border with Connecticut. But why did it enjoy such a spike in dictionary lookups this year in particular? In a word, Roblox; this name can be encountered in Roblox game Spelling Bee, throwing out a 58-character challenge to anyone braving &#8216;Master Mode&#8217; (or as Merriam-Webster notes, &#8216;Charg Mode&#8217; &#8220;for real connoisseurs&#8221;). Unfortunately, that&#8217;s about as much positivity about <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/interview-with-roblox-ceo-kicks-off-with-an-unbelievable-answer-about-its-predator-problem-being-not-just-a-problem-but-an-opportunity-and-somehow-just-gets-crazier-from-there\/\" target=\"_blank\">Roblox<\/a> as I can personally manage this year, so I&#8217;m gonna move on.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:1920px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"2x5VsXnSQkScLwcZDLUvjJ\" name=\"Sora 2\" alt=\"Text-to-video AI tech Sora 2 in action.\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/merriam-websters-word-of-the-year-is-slop-summing-up-12-months-that-have-been-especially-soggy-with-ai-generated-content-in-only-four-letters.png\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: OpenAI)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Back to slop, then! Between <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/ai-content-now-outnumbers-human-written-articles-on-the-internet-but-the-good-news-is-that-the-slop-seems-to-have-plateaued-for-now\/\" target=\"_blank\">AI-generated content now apparently outnumbering human-written articles on the internet<\/a>, to <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/hardware\/inundated-with-slop-tiktok-tests-feature-that-will-let-users-request-to-see-less-ai-generated-content-in-their-feeds\/\" target=\"_blank\">TikTok being inundated with AI-generated videos <\/a>thanks to the advent of <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/openais-new-video-generation-tool-sora-2-is-here-but-dont-worry-sam-altman-says-it-will-avoid-the-degenerate-case-of-ai-video-generation-that-ends-up-with-us-all-being-sucked-into-an-rl-optimized-slop-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\">OpenAI&#8217;s Sora<\/a> and similar video-generation tools, Merriam-Webster is right to say &#8220;Slop oozes into everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While I personally think AI-generated content either reads poorly or simply looks ugly, some would insist I&#8217;m in the minority; former director of business at Square Enix, Jacob Navok claims, &#8220;consumers generally do not care&#8221; and that &#8220;<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/ex-square-enix-suit-says-you-can-whine-all-you-like-but-gen-z-loves-ai-slop-and-everyone-and-their-grandma-is-already-using-it\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gen Z loves AI slop<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>Does that mean we&#8217;re going to see more games like <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/4084120\/CODEX_MORTIS\/\" target=\"_blank\">Codex Mortis<\/a>, a roguelite claiming the dubious honour of being &#8216;<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/roguelike\/this-roguelite-claims-to-have-the-dubious-honor-of-being-the-worlds-first-fully-playable-game-created-100-percent-through-ai-in-a-milestone-for-slop-everywhere\/\" target=\"_blank\">the world&#8217;s first fully playable game created 100% through AI<\/a>&#8216;? I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to see a few more AI-fuelled imitators\u2014but considering we also have the very much human-made <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/vampire-survivors\/\" target=\"_blank\">Vampire Survivors<\/a>, I doubt any of these slop games will have real staying power\u2026wait, <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/roguelike\/vampire-survivors-is-getting-a-deckbuilding-dungeon-crawler-spin-off-that-looks-purpose-built-to-annihilate-your-free-time\/\" target=\"_blank\">Poncle is developing a deckbuilding spin-off<\/a>? That sounds like a 2026 release all but hand-crafted for me specifically\u2014how am I only hearing about this now!?<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/software\/ai\/merriam-websters-word-of-the-year-is-slop-summing-up-12-months-that-have-been-especially-soggy-with-ai-generated-content-in-only-four-letters\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a move likely unsurprising to regular readers of this fine publication, Merriam-Webster&#8217;s word of the year is &#8216;Slop&#8217; (via The Associated Press). In a blog post, the dictionary and reference book company stresses the fact this word was in fact chosen by its &#8220;human editors.&#8221; Merriam-Webster defines &#8216;slop&#8217; in the context of 2025 as &#8220;digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.&#8221; Wow, say how you really feel, tomes. The blog post goes on to reflect on how inescapable this tidal wave of brain rotting content has been online, quipping, &#8220;People found it annoying, and people ate it up.&#8221; Naturally, such a blog post wouldn&#8217;t be complete without a brief etymology lesson. Continuing with the not-so-subtle&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/merriam-websters-word-of-the-year-is-slop-summing-up-12-months-that-have-been-especially-soggy-with-ai-generated-content-in-only-four-letters\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1428932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[1997,1622],"class_list":["post-1428931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-ai","tag-software"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Merriam-Webster&#039;s word of the year is &#039;Slop,&#039; summing up 12 months that have been especially soggy with AI-generated content in only four letters | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a move likely unsurprising to regular readers of this fine publication, Merriam-Webster&#039;s word of the year is &#039;Slop&#039; (via The Associated Press). 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