The phrase "rage bait" was selected by Oxford University Press as its word of the year for 2025 .

Rage bait, which is defined as “deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive” with the intent of driving traffic to a social media account, topped two other popular online phrases, "aura farming" and "biohack," on the shortlist compiled by Oxford University Press lexicographers.

“The person producing it will bask in the millions, quite often, of comments and shares and even likes sometimes,’’ lexicographer Susie Dent told the BBC while discussing the decision, which she said was made as a result of algorithms used by social media companies, “because although we love fluffy cats, we’ll appreciate that we tend to engage more with negat

See Full Page