If you have been scrolling through AI-generated videos, weird adverts, or strange digital content online, you might have noticed a lot of it falls under what dictionaries are now calling ‘slop.’

Merriam-Webster has just named it its 2025 word of the year, highlighting how online content has evolved, or perhaps devolved, in the age of artificial intelligence.

“It’s such an illustrative word," said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster's president. “It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying and a little bit ridiculous.”

What does ‘slop’ actually mean?

The word ‘slop’ dates back to the 1700s, when it originally referred to soft mud. Over time, it came to mean something of little value.

Today, the definition has expanded to include "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence."

“You know, absurd videos, weird advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks real, junky AI-written digital books,” Barlow said.

How is AI fuelling ‘slop’?

AI video generators like Sora have impressed people with their ability to quickly create realistic clips from simple text prompts. But the sheer volume of these images and clips on social media, sometimes featuring celebrities or even deceased public figures, has sparked concerns about misinformation, deepfakes and copyright issues.

This type of content has existed for a while, but the tools are now more accessible. Some have used them for political purposes, including the head of the Pentagon. Last month, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a manipulated image of a beloved cartoon turtle, reimagined as a grenade-wielding fighter, to defend US military actions in Venezuela.

The Canadian animated show “Franklin” is designed to teach preschoolers about kindness, empathy and inclusivity. In Hegseth's hands, its six-year-old main character became a tool to promote violence.

Why does the word ‘slop’ feel so vivid?

The word evokes images of pigs crowding around a dirty trough or a bucket of steaming, unpleasant stew. In the AI context, it can also describe bizarre algorithmic creations, sometimes offensive or nonsensical.

For some people, just hearing the word can be unnerving. But Barlow sees it differently. He believes that the spike in searches for the word shows that people are becoming more aware of fake or poor-quality content and are seeking the opposite.

“They want things that are real, they want things that are genuine," he said. "It's almost a defiant word when it comes to AI. When it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes AI actually doesn't seem so intelligent.”

How does Merriam-Webster pick the word of the year?

The dictionary’s editors study search data to see which words are trending and widely used. They then decide which one best captures the essence of the year.

“We like to think that we are a mirror for people," Barlow said.

Some words are consistently looked up but are not chosen as the word of the year. “Words like ubiquitous, paradigm, albeit, irregardless, these are always top lookups because they’re words that are on the edge of our lexicon," he said. “'Irregardless' is a word in the dictionary for one reason: It's used. It's been used for decades to mean regardless."

Merriam-Webster has selected a word each year since 2003 to help capture and explain the cultural moment. Last year, shortly after the US presidential election and amid national shifts, the word was “polarisation.”

A new edition of the dictionary came out last month, adding over 5,000 words — a rare revision that involved rethinking one of the world’s most popular dictionaries.