‘Rage bait’ is defined as online content deliberately designed to provoke anger or outrage in order to increase clicks, traffic, or engagement: Reports
HYDERABAD: Oxford University Press (OUP) has named ‘rage bait’ as the Oxford Word of the Year 2025, after more than 30,000 people voted over three days. The term beat ‘aura farming’ and ‘biohack’ in the final shortlist, in a year dominated by online unrest, tougher debates around moderation, and rising anxiety about digital wellbeing.
‘Rage bait’ is defined as online content deliberately designed to provoke anger or outrage in order to increase clicks, traffic, or engagement. Oxford language researchers found its usage has grown threefold in the last 12 months, which they said pointed to a shift in how attention is captured, not by curiosity, but by emotional provocation. The winning word was selected using a mix of public voting, sentiment from commentary, and OUP’s lexical data.
A compound of “rage” and “bait,” the term sits close to clickbait but with a narrower aim: targeting anger, discord, and polarisation. Its earliest recorded use online appeared in a 2002 Usenet post relating to aggressive reactions between drivers, introducing the idea of deliberate agitation.
Over time, the term moved into Internet slang to describe viral tweets and content cycles shaped by platforms and creators. It steadily became mainstream, used in newsrooms and by digital strategists to describe posts designed to provoke rather than inform.
The tactic has since expanded into rage farming, a sustained strategy of building audience anger through repeated provocation, often tied to conspiracy material or misinformation. As recommendation algorithms began rewarding high-arousal emotions, rage bait became a reliable way to drive engagement in political discourse and culture wars.
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said the rise of rage bait speaks to how technology now manipulates emotion at scale. “Before, the Internet was focused on grabbing our attention by sparking curiosity. Now we’ve seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond,” he said. He added that last year’s pick, brain rot, showed the mental drain of endless scrolling, while rage bait captures the content engineered to spark outrage and keep audiences hooked.
Oxford’s researchers said the shortlist shows how people behave online. Aura farming, the runner-up, grew from influencer culture and aesthetic language. It refers to carefully curating one’s personality and vibe to appear aspirational or authentic, turning the self into a brand rather than simply promoting products. Biohack, which came third, has moved from niche experimentation to everyday wellness and performance.
