{"id":219772,"date":"2026-03-03T23:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T04:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/cambridge-dictionarys-2025-word-of-the-year-captures-an-unhealthy-modern-phenomenon\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T09:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:45:10","slug":"cambridge-dictionarys-2025-word-of-the-year-captures-an-unhealthy-modern-phenomenon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/cambridge-dictionarys-2025-word-of-the-year-captures-an-unhealthy-modern-phenomenon\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambridge Dictionary\u2019s 2025 word of the year captures an \u2018unhealthy\u2019 modern phenomenon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cambridge Dictionary\u2019s 2025 word of the year captures an \u2018unhealthy\u2019 modern phenomenon<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/cambridge-dictionary-2025-word-captures-000101882.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-03 23:06:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.aol.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Taylor Swift (left) and Travis Kelce (right) are among the celebrities that have inspired fans to develop parasocial relationships. – David Eulitt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cambridge Dictionary has named its word of the year for 2025, alighting on \u201cparasocial,\u201d used to describe a connection that people feel with someone they don\u2019t know \u2013 or even with an artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

The term was coined in 1956 by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl, who wanted to describe how television viewers formed \u201cpara-social\u201d relationships with TV personalities, the dictionary said in a statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n

This phenomenon continues today, as social media users form parasocial relationships with celebrities, influencers and online personalities with whom they have no personal connection.<\/p>\n

A key example cited by Cambridge Dictionary is singer Taylor Swift, who announced her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce this year, with many fans talking of their heartfelt feelings toward a couple that the vast majority had never met.<\/p>\n

Another is British singer Lily Allen, whose latest album \u201cWest End Girl\u201d tells the story of a breakup and sparked a \u201cparasocial interest in her love life,\u201d according to the statement.<\/p>\n

And use of the term has surged this year, particularly as concerns over the connections that some people have started to develop with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT have come to the fore.<\/p>\n

Colin McIntosh, a lexicographer at the Cambridge Dictionary, said the word \u201ccaptures the 2025 zeitgeist\u201d and demonstrates how language changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream,\u201d he said in the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by their rise,\u201d McIntosh added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe language around parasocial phenomena is evolving fast, as technology, society and culture shift and mutate: from celebrities to chatbots, parasocial trends are fascinating for those who are interested in the development of…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cambridge Dictionary\u2019s 2025 word of the year captures an \u2018unhealthy\u2019 modern phenomenon https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/cambridge-dictionary-2025-word-captures-000101882.html Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/en\/aol_cnn_articles_945\/52dad98f581406e07d35b309f93265e3","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-219772","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\/219772"}],"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=219772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219774,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219772\/revisions\/219774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}