Demure, Slop, or Brain Rot – which one will become 2024's Word of the Year

After vax, goblin-mode and rizz were crowned Oxford Word of the Year in 2021, 2022 and 2023, this year’s competition is fierce as demure, lore, slop and brain rot battle it out for the top spot.

For the last three years, the Oxford University Press (OUP) has been giving word nerds and lovers around the world the chance to vote for their annual Word of the Year.

This year’s shortlist reflects moods and conversations online and offline that shaped 2024 and was put together by OUP’s experts following analysis of its 25-billion-word corpus of language data, according to a press release.

Their website explains that their approach is to let their “lexicographers analyse the English language to summarise words and expressions that have reflected our world during the last 12 months”.

“We analyse data and trends to identify new and emerging words and examine the shifts in how more established words are being used. The team also considered suggestions from our colleagues and the public, and looked back at the world’s most influential moments of the year to inform their shortlist—culminating in a word or expression of cultural significance,” the website shared.

This year, they are also celebrating their 20th anniversary, and will be reflecting on the “words that stood the test of time, as well as the ones that captured a moment”.

So what words are in the shortlist for this year?

1. Lore (n.): A body of (supposed) facts, background information, and anecdotes relating to someone or something, regarded as knowledge required for full understanding or informed discussion of the subject in question.

2. Brain rot (n.): Supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterised as likely to lead to such deterioration.

3. Dynamic pricing (n.): The practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions; in particular, the charging of a higher price at a time of greater demand.

4. Demure (adj.): Of a person: reserved or restrained in appearance or behaviour. Of clothing: not showy, ostentatious, or overly revealing.

5. Slop (n.): Art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterised as being of low quality, inauthentic, or inaccurate.

6. Romantasy (n.): A genre of fiction combining elements of romantic fiction and fantasy, typically featuring themes of magic, the supernatural, or adventure alongside a central romantic storyline.

“Since 2004, we’ve aimed to provide a window into language and cultural change through the Oxford Word of the Year. The 2024 shortlist represents a snapshot of the topics that have caught our interest and imagination and kept us talking,” said the President of Oxford Languages Casper Grathwohl about this year’s selection.

“Capturing themes from finances to fantasy, what is particularly unique about this year’s selection is the range of words associated with bygone eras that have slid back into public consciousness – in some cases after being adopted and retooled by online communities,” he added.

Voting will remain open for two weeks, closing on Thursday (November 28). OUP will conduct a last detailed analysis, considering corpus data, votes, and public commentary on the finalists, before naming the definitive Word of the Year for 2024 on December 2.

This year marks two decades of Oxford Word of the Year, and the third time that people across the world have had the opportunity to vote for their Word of the Year, with the public crowning goblin mode their winner in 2022, and rizz in 2023.

From podcast (US) and sudoku (UK) in 2005, to selfie (2013) 😂 (face with tears of joy emoji, 2015) and climate emergency (2019), Word of the Year continues to highlight the language that has shaped conversations and reflected the cultural shifts, patterns, and sentiments of a particular year.

Last year, the Collins Dictionary revealed their word of 2024 as "brat " which is defined as ‘characterised by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude’.

The word is inspired by the Charli XCX album, ‘brat’ has become one of the most talked about words of 2024. US publishing company Merriam-Webster have elected their Word of the Year for 2023 as “authentic”, the term for something we’re thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more than ever.