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'Rage bait' wins Oxford's word of 2025

In this photo illustration, 'Oxford Word of the Year 2025' is displayed on a mobile phone screen next to the word 'rage bait' in Ankara, Turkiye on December 1, 2025. [AFP]

"Rage bait", the slang term describing online content designed to elicit anger and drive internet traffic, has been crowned 2025 word of the year, Oxford University Press (OUP) announced Monday.

It said the word -- chosen through a combination of public voting, sentiment and analysis of OUP's "lexical data" -- had "captured our emotions" this year.

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