Oxford Dictionary's 2024 Word Of The Year Sums It All Up, Really

The more trend-conscious among us might raise an eyebrow at Collins Dictionary’s 2024 word of the year, Brat. 

The word is tied to Charlie XCX’s album that went viral this summer, but brat summer soon gave way to demure autumn.

In that sense, Dictionary.com’s word of the year ― “demure” ― is a little more current. 

But if you ask me, I reckon Oxford Dictionary’s choice trumps ’em both, not least because it applies to the whole year.

What’s the Oxford Dictionary word of the year in 2024?

They plumped for “brain rot,” which the Oxford Dictionary defines as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”

It also refers to “something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration,” they add.

Things like TikTok’s “sludge content,” where a split screen might play a chatty or funny conversation alongside soothing content like someone power-washing a floor, could qualify for that second definition.

Oxford Dictionary picked the word after over 37,000 votes, “worldwide discussion,” and looking at their own language data. 

“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. The term increased in usage frequency by 230% between 2023 and 2024,” they explain. 

It’s actually a pretty old term

Though the Oxford University Press stresses that the term’s current iteration is most often used by younger generations, they point out that its first recorded use was in Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden. 

The 1854 book detailing his journeys reconnecting with nature ― or as the kids might have it now, touching grass ― he asked, “While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” 

“I find it fascinating that the term ‘brain rot’ has been adopted by Gen Z and Gen Alpha, those communities largely responsible for the use and creation of the digital content the term refers to,” Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, said.

“These communities have amplified the expression through social media channels, the very place said to cause ‘brain rot’. It demonstrates a somewhat cheeky self-awareness in the younger generations about the harmful impact of social media that they’ve inherited.”