Following three days of voting, with more than 30,000 people expressing their opinion, Oxford has picked 'rage bait' as word of the year.
"Rage bait (n) refers to online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account," Oxford stated.
The word has spiked threefold in usage in the last 12 months, as per Oxford's lexical data.
Oxford's language experts shortlisted three contenders -- rage bait, aura farming, and biohack.
Even before the language enthusiasts pop up, "Isn't 'rage bait' two words?" question, Oxford clarifies rage bait as a standalone term, highlighting the flexibility of the English language.
It asserted that two established words can be combined to provide a more specific meaning in a particular context.
Notably, Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, expressed, "the fact that the word rage bait exists and has seen such a dramatic surge in usage means we’re increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics we can be drawn into online."
