The Cambridge Dictionary has defined the word 2025. This was facilitated by Taylor Swift

The Cambridge Dictionary has officially announced "parasocial" as the word of the year 2025. It describes a one-way connection that a person feels with a famous person, character, or artificial intelligence. The word has become popular as people often turn to celebrities and influencers to feel connected to them in their online lives.

This word first appeared in 1956 when sociologists were observing television viewers. They noticed that viewers were entering into "parasocial" relationships with on-screen characters. The editor of the Cambridge Dictionary, Colin Mackintosh, noted that in 2025 the word became popular and turned from an academic term into a common word, and interest in it increased dramatically .

The engagement of singer Taylor Swift to football star Travis Kelce, an event called a "parasocial moment," contributed to this growth. Also, the growth of searches was related to discussions about ethical training of AI.

Among the contenders were also the words:

• pseudonymization is a process where personal information (such as name or email) is replaced with an unimportant number or name. This is done to make it impossible to identify the person.
• memeify means turning an event, image, or person into a meme. The word reflects the creativity of Internet culture and shows the use of memes for entertainment and communication.

Despite the growing popularity of both words, they were not associated with any specific event.

• on November 15, 2023, it became known that the Cambridge Dictionary named the word of the year - "hallucinate".
• On November 20, the Cambridge Dictionary recognized "manifest" as the word of the year.