Cambridge Dictionary names its 2025 word of the year - do you know what it means?
The term dates all the way back to 1956
Cambridge Dictionary has revealed “parasocial” as its word of the year for 2025, defined as involving a connection someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know.
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Psychologists have observed how the rise of one-sided parasocial relationships has redefined fandom and celebrity.
For instance, when pop star Taylor Swift and American footballer Travis Kelce announced their engagement earlier this year, many fans felt a strong connection to them despite most not having met them.
The parasocial relationships that people form with online influencers and artificial intelligence chatbots have also been highlighted as part of the growing trend.
The announcement comes after 'vibe coding' sees off ‘clanker’ and 'biohacking' were named as Collins dictionary’s word of the year
Colin McIntosh of the Cambridge Dictionary said: “Parasocial captures the 2025 zeitgeist. It’s a great example of how language changes.
“What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream.
“Millions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by their rise.
“The data reflects that, with the Cambridge Dictionary website seeing spikes in lookups for ‘parasocial’.
“The language around parasocial phenomena is evolving fast, as technology, society and culture shift and mutate. From celebrities to chatbots, parasocial trends are fascinating for those who are interested in the development of language.”
The term parasocial dates back to 1956, when two University of Chicago sociologists observed that television viewers engaged in parasocial relationships with on-screen personalities, resembling those they formed with ‘real’ family and friends.
They noted how the rapidly expanding medium of television brought the faces of actors directly into viewers’ homes, making them fixtures in people’s lives.
Simone Schnall, professor of experimental social psychology at the University of Cambridge, told LBC News: “Parasocial means that we have these pretty much one sided relationships with celebrities, people we look up to, people we admire for some reason and we feel very strong about those and they can be quite powerful even though they're not real. We'll never meet that person in real life.
"There have been some really famous people in the public eye, such as Taylor Swift, others who've garnered a lot of attention, the well-known Swifties phenomenon. So it's been a trend that has been there for a while now and it's become much more prevalent I think because we spend so much time on social media, on technology and at the same time also a lot of time alone when it comes to real life relationships."
Cambridge Dictionary has added some 6,000 new words this year including “delulu”, a play on the word delusional, gibberish word “skibidi” and “tradwife”, short for traditional wife.
Other words noted as having an impact this year include “slop”, in reference to content on the internet that is of very low quality, especially when it is created by artificial intelligence.
Another is “memeify”, meaning to turn an event, image or person into a meme – an idea, joke, image or video that is spread quickly on the internet.