Is bird-dogging your Roman empire? Macquarie Dictionary reveals word of the year finalists

“Attention economy”, “bathroom camping” and “Ozempic face” have little in common – except for being three of the finalists for Macquarie Dictionary’s 2025 word of the year.

The phrases are in the top 15 for both the Australian national dictionary’s committee’s choice and people’s choice award, joined by other terms such as “AI slop”, “ Australian sushi ”, “ate (and left no crumbs)” and “Roman empire”.

Australians have until Sunday night to cast their vote for the people’s choice word of the year, before the winning words in both categories are announced next Tuesday.

The dictionary’s executive editor, Victoria Morgan, said the shortlist considers words that have entered the dictionary in the past year from categories including finance, fashion and health.

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