Following a public vote in which more than 37,000 people had their say, Oxford Dictionary has officially announced that “brainrot” will take out the 2024 word of the year.
Defined as mental decline caused by trivial material, the word saw a 230% usage increase.
The word beat out five other phrases on the dictionary publisher’s shortlist, including demure, Romantasy and dynamic pricing.
“Our experts noticed that ‘brain rot’ gained new prominence this year as a term used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media,” Oxford University press said.
“Brainrot” was also on the shortlist for Dictionary.com 2024 word of the year but was ultimately beaten out by “demure”.
