Cambridge Dictionary names parasocial its 2025 word of the year, citing fan culture around Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan and AI chatbots.

A term used to describe the connection people feel with celebrities, TV shows, and even artificial intelligence, has taken out a prestigious linguistic crown.

"67," pronounced "six seven," spread from a rap song, through sports and social media, to classrooms and homes across the U.S. But even the artist who coined it struggles to define it.

Yes, you read that right. Dictionary.com picked “6-7” as its Word of the Year for 2025, and this decision created a lot of controversy. Some people saw it as a joke, claiming that a meme shouldn’t be the word of the year,

Dictionary.com has selected a word of the year for 2025 that is not even technically a word – it's more of an inside joke among young people that technically has no meaning. But if you’ve had a conversation with any teens or tweens lately, you’ve probably heard them randomly say: 6-7.

The dictionary says the viral word, which has become particularly popular among members of Gen Alpha, is "meaningless, ubiquitous and nonsensical"

“Slop” means poorly crafted AI content, “memeify”, means to turn an event into a meme, and “pseudonymization” is a form of encryption that turns individual information like names and addresses into a number or name that has no meaning.

Parasocial relationships aren’t new, but social media has intensified them because creators share their lives in ways that feel personal, accessible, and emotionally charged.