After tallying over 37,000 votes globally, Oxford University Press (OUP) revealed on Monday the 2024 Oxford Word of the Year: “brain rot.”
OUP, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, issued a statement that described “brain rot” as “the alleged decline in a person’s mental or intellectual condition, particularly seen as a consequence of excessive exposure to material (especially digital content) deemed trivial or lacking in challenge.”
It is also defined as “something characterised as likely to lead to such deterioration.”
The word of the year aims to highlight “a term or phrase that embodies a significant theme from the previous year.”
“Brain rot” was selected through a mix of public voting and linguistic evaluation by Oxford lexicographers. It outperformed five other contenders: demure, slop, dynamic pricing, romantasy, and lore.
Experts from OUP have observed that the term ‘brain rot’ gained heightened attention this year, reflecting worries about the effects of consuming high volumes of low-quality online content, particularly on social media platforms. The usage of this term surged by 230% from 2023 to 2024.
The earliest known instance of ‘brain rot’ appeared in 1854 in Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden; however, it has acquired new relevance in today’s digital landscape.
