{"id":211431,"date":"2026-02-08T19:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/08\/merriam-websters-2025-word-of-the-year-takes-aim-at-poor-ai-content\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T21:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:20:09","slug":"merriam-websters-2025-word-of-the-year-takes-aim-at-poor-ai-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/08\/merriam-websters-2025-word-of-the-year-takes-aim-at-poor-ai-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Merriam-Webster\u2019s 2025 word of the year takes aim at poor AI content"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/merriam-webster-2025-word-takes-140140336.html\">Merriam-Webster\u2019s 2025 word of the year takes aim at poor AI content<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/merriam-webster-2025-word-takes-140140336.html\">https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/merriam-webster-2025-word-takes-140140336.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-02-08 19:08:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.aol.com\">www.aol.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Merriam-Webster is the latest dictionary to name a word of the year that relates to our relationship with technology. &#8211; JGI\/Jamie Grill\/Tetra images RF\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSlop,\u201d a term used to describe low-quality digital content, has been named word of the year by the Merriam-Webster dictionary.<\/p>\n<p>The dictionary defines slop as \u201cdigital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.\u201d A statement from Merriam-Webster cites examples such as absurd videos, talking cats and AI-written books.<\/p>\n<p>Merriam-Webster is the latest in a string of dictionaries to choose words of the year based on our relationship with technology and artificial intelligence. Collins\u2019 word of the year \u201cvibe coding,\u201d Cambridge\u2019s \u201cparasocial\u201d and Oxford\u2019s \u201crage bait\u201d all reflect contemporary concerns about the effects of tech on our lives.<\/p>\n<p>First used in the 1700s to mean \u201csoft mud,\u201d \u201cslop\u201d then came to mean \u201cfood waste\u201d in the 1800s before taking on a more general meaning of \u201crubbish\u201d or \u201ca product of little or no value,\u201d according to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary.<\/p>\n<p>Merriam-Webster\u2019s statement acknowledges that slop in the modern day divides opinions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople found it annoying, and people ate it up,\u201d reads the statement, which goes on to discuss the almost mocking tone behind the term.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe word sends a little message to AI: when it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes you don\u2019t seem too superintelligent,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n<p>Other candidates for word of the year included \u201cgerrymander,\u201d meaning \u201cto divide a state, school district, etc. into political units or election districts that give one group or political party an unfair advantage,\u201d which came to the fore in the United States this year as both Republican and Democrat politicians used redistricting to gain political advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Editors also considered choosing the phrase \u201ctouch grass,\u201d which means \u201cto participate in normal activities&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/merriam-webster-2025-word-takes-140140336.html\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merriam-Webster\u2019s 2025 word of the year takes aim at poor AI content https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/merriam-webster-2025-word-takes-140140336.html Publish Date:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/cv\/apiv2\/aolfp\/images\/og-image.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-211431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211433,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211431\/revisions\/211433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}