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Every year Oxford University Press chooses a ‘Word of the Year.’ It is selected based on data that highlights a commonly used word or expression. Oxford chose rage bait out of three contenders, the other two being aura farming and biohack.
The world’s leading dictionary chose rage bait after three days of debate and voting with over 30,000 opinions on the matter.
Rage bait represents online topics purposely trying to provoke anger. It is a tactic to outrage viewers by using incorrect or strong claims in the form of “clickbait.” The overall goal is publicity, even through negative reactions.
According to the Oxford University Press, the word was first used in 2002, was heard on the road; it would occur when someone driving a car purposely did something annoying (like flashing their lights) to agitate another driver. This spread to the internet, and is now used to describe when someone does something to purposely anger another person. The word has been used three times more in 2025 than previous years since the word has existed.
Rage bait is used to describe the fight for emotional interactions online. This word has often been used in everyday conversations or online, but do students know what it really means?
