Cambridge Dictionary chooses 2025 Word of the Year

The Cambridge Dictionary has chosen “parasocial” as its Word of the Year, Euronews reports.

The word describes a type of connection a person feels toward a well-known individual, book, film, TV series, or artificial intelligence system, despite having no real-life interaction with them. It is used to refer to parasocial relationships in which someone feels they personally know a public figure even though they have never met.

Delving into why they chose “parasocial” as their Word of the Year, Cambridge Dictionary states: “As social media intensifies the intimacy that fans feel with their adored celebrities, and with the rise in popularity of AI companions that can take on personalities, the word for these one-way relationships – parasocial – is having its own moment.”

It’s only the second time that an adjective has been crowned Word of the Year, following “paranoid” in 2016.