If you’ve been scrolling too long on social media, you might be suffering from “brain rot,” the word of 2024, per the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary.After public consultation, Oxford University Press announced its choice—defined as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state,

"Brain rot" is the 2024 word of the year according to Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary.

There’s a name for that feeling you get after spending too long scrolling aimlessly, and Oxford University Press (OUP) has chosen it as its word for the year for 2024. “Brain rot” took the title in a vote in which more than 37,000 people participated, as well as public commentary and analysis of OUP’s language data.

A slang term for supposed mental damage done by overconsumption of trivial online content triumphed over a shortlist that also included “lore,” “demure” and “slop.”

Dictionary.com has released its annual Word of the Year for 2024. The online dictionary chose “demure" as the Word of the Year, but “extreme weather" ranked high in searches in 2024.

Oxford University Press has named “brain rot” its word of the year. It's defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state,” especially from consuming too much low-grade online content.

Oxford University Press says usage frequency of brain rot increased by 230 percent between 2023 and 2024, earning it word of the year.

Scrolling through silly or nonsensical social media posts can have an unofficial side effect: "brain rot." Why it matters: It's a phrase Oxford University Press said "gained new prominence in 2024" — so much so that Oxford dubbed the term its word of the year.

Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, enlisted the help of more than 37,000 people to vote for a winning word from a shortlist of six words. It defined "brain rot" as the "supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state,

Many of us have felt it, and now it's official: "brain rot" is the Oxford dictionaries' word of the year. Oxford University Press said Monday that the evocative phrase "gained new prominence in 2024."

Capping off a year that proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that non- A.V. Club readers are spending too much time ingesting the worst shit imaginable online, the Oxford University Press has named “brain rot” Word of the Year.