American Dialect Society 2025 Word of the Year Is "Slop"

79 pointsposted 11 hours ago
by ChrisArchitect
(americandialect.org)

32 Comments

shmerl

9 hours ago

Another new term - sloperator.

BoneShard

9 hours ago

microslop

robotnikman

9 hours ago

Me and my coworkers have been using Microslop a lot lately. Usually when Teams is having some kind of annoying issue.

anonnon

8 hours ago

The wikipedia entry, should it ever get one, ought to prominently feature a photo of Simon Willison.

ChrisArchitect

11 hours ago

Where some of the other big WOTY selections ended up:

Oxford 'rage bait' https://corp.oup.com/news/the-oxford-word-of-the-year-2025-i...

Collins 'vibe coding' https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/collins-w...

Cambridge 'parasocial' https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2025/11/18/cambridge-di...

Dictionary.com '67' https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-year-2025/

Merriam-Webster 'slop' https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-of-the-year

Analemma_

10 hours ago

I think ADS and Merriam-Webster got it right. "Rage bait" and "parasocial" were the WOTY 2-3 years ago; not that they've gone away, but they were of a previous moment. "Vibe coding" is too specific, and "67" is trying too hard to be Hip and With It.

"Slop" is the word that perfectly captures what so much of 2026 was about, and I heard it from every direction, including people not into tech at all.

anonnon

9 hours ago

> The word slop was recognized for its widespread use for low-quality, high-quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI. While AI slop was a nominee in the American Dialect Society’s 2024 Word of the Year vote, in 2025 slop could stand on its own,

I'm not sure if it matters, but the term AI Slop started on 4chan, probably on /g/, derived from the ubiquitous 4chan "goyslop" meme (used to describe ultraprocessed food). Seeing "normies" casually throwing it around, completely unaware of its etymology is... interesting. Likewise interesting is how this article retconned its etymology, to omit any mention of its true inspiration. (Maybe because the term has gone mainstream?)

fluoridation

9 hours ago

I'm pretty sure "slop" in the sense used in "AI slop" is a word in common usage for any kind of cheap, low-quality, unpalatable edible paste, like gruel or anything of that nature, especially when it has a homogeneous consistency. It can also appear in verb form such as "slop it onto a plate", that is to scoop up the slop with a ladle or some other utensil and messily splat in onto a dining plate. It very much is not Internet slang, and I'd say it's quite an appropriate term for what it describes in its new meaning.

anonnon

8 hours ago

"AI slop" is an internet meme that bears a strking resemblance to another, older meme, "goyslop"; why is it such a stretch to believe the former derived from the latter? "AI slop" was being used on 4chan as far back as November, 2022 on /g/:

https://desuarchive.org/g/thread/89758234/#q89758967

https://desuarchive.org/g/thread/89911387/#q89931883

It also saw its first use that month on /pol/, though I won't link to the archived threads (for obvious reasons). Unless you can provide earlier prior art, the most likely etymology of the term is 4chan, November, 2022, derived from "goyslop."

wincy

8 hours ago

Because we’ve fed slop to pigs since the 1600s? It’s a commonly known word with a clearly understood meaning. It didn’t come from or is a shortening of goyslop, you’re just flat out wrong.

yadaeno

6 hours ago

Right.. but it’s WOTY in 2025 not 1600. The reason this word and many others (including doomer, neckbeard, zoomer, etc) are popular can easily be traced back to 4chan.

There’s a book called“Algospeak” by Adam Alekaik specifically talks about how internet slang terms often originate from radicalized communities like 4chan and slowly filter into the mainstream while losing their original political meaning. Goyslop-> AI slop is a textbook example of this.

fluoridation

6 hours ago

Where's the evidence that "AI slop" actually originates from "goyslop", though? Just because one predates the other and both contain the same root word? It's equally if not more likely that both terms were derived independently. Like I said, "slop" is a word in common usage that precisely matches the usage of both terms: something bland, low-quality, and high-quantity.

yadaeno

6 hours ago

The way “slop” is used here is very specific. It implies a power dynamic between the slop producer and consumer where the consumer is viewed as cattle, and the producer feeds the cheapest possible product.

GP cities specific examples of this usage on 4chan in 2022 which is proof until someone can find a counter example.

recursivecaveat

5 hours ago

Yeah, there is a power dynamic where the consumer is viewed as cattle, because the origin of the word is literal cattle lol.

> When Mr. Zuckerman reached the pigpen, he climbed over the fence and poured the slops into the trough.

Are you now willing to accept my 'proof' that 4chan actually derived specifically from Charlotte's Web?

fluoridation

5 hours ago

I'm not sure that connotation is all that present in the way it's commonly used, but I'll grant it. However, like the other person you responded to has said, "slop" already had that meaning, because it is the low-grade cattle feed. So If both "AI slop" and "goyslop" carry these shades of meaning, it would not suggest one descends from the other, but that both descend directly from "slop".

yadaeno

4 hours ago

That's maybe true, but "goyslop" was specifically referring to vapes, processed food and tiktok. Then shortly after people started calling tiktok "slop" and ai tiktok "ai slop".

I think its a stretch to declare there is zero relation considering how much internet language originates from 4chan.

fluoridation

3 hours ago

>"goyslop" was specifically referring to vapes, processed food and tiktok

That doesn't sound very specific, that sounds quite broad. Looking around posts up to 2023 I can see the word used for just about anything, including HDMI and Disney. Honestly, this says to me it's just used as synonymous with "slop" in the broad sense, with no added meaning.

>I think its a stretch to declare there is zero relation considering how much internet language originates from 4chan.

There's no zero relation. The relation between the two terms is just not parent-child, but fraternal. Both simply inherit their meaning from "slop". "Slop" already has connotations of cheapness, low quality, high quantity, and cattle feed, and is a word that has existed since Old English. There's literally no reason to think "AI slop" is descended from "goyslop". At best someone heard the latter and by analogy coined the former, but given that "goyslop" had already been coined by simply prepending a modifier to "slop", there's not even any need for that explanation.

immibis

2 hours ago

"gas" as in "natural gas" is not a shortening of "gas the Jews" either. Just because antisemites used a word, that doesn't mean the word is antisemitic.

SV_BubbleTime

7 hours ago

This while thread is wild.

Slop has always been a bulk shitty thing.

nephihaha

8 hours ago

Nah... I've heard the term slop used all my lifetime. Very common word, as is "sloppy". In fact, I'd connect it with sloppy in the sense of poor workmanship.

fluoridation

8 hours ago

Okay. If "slop" is a shortened form of "goyslop", then what's the etymology of "goyslop"? Is it just a wholly novel sequence of unrelated letters?

nephihaha

8 hours ago

Goy is the Hebrew for a Gentile (or a nation). However, while goyslop is an earlier coinage I certainly do not link it to AI-slop, but more to "sloppy".

fluoridation

7 hours ago

"Goyslop" and "sloppy" are both derived from "slop". "Goyslop" meaning "slop of the goy variety" (equivalently to "AI slop"), and "sloppy" meaning "having the qualities of slop".

nephihaha

7 hours ago

I was already aware of the term "goyslop" but I see it as a parallel development rather than the origin. I heard daytime TV programming being referred to as slop over twenty years ago. I don't think there are any antisemitic undertones for the word outwith the "goyslop" coinage.

JBorrow

8 hours ago

I’m not sure that’s an accurate description of the word’s entomology not least because “goyslop” is itself derived from… “slop”, which is low quality high-volume food for livestock.

amdsn

9 hours ago

I remember slop, sloppa, etc. were frequently used terms on /ck/ (the cooking board) long before any nouns and adjectives were prepended to them. it is unfortunate that most 4chan lingo nowadays enters the mainstream via the /pol/ -> twitter human centipede, which usually means the words pick up a certain awful flavor from that board.

nephihaha

8 hours ago

Sloppy is extremely common, more so than slop.