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.”

The term brain rot, first recorded in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden, has gained new meaning in the digital age. Over the past year, it has become popular on social media, especially among Gen Z and Gen Alpha users on TikTok.

The phrase beat out contenders like demure, lore, and romantasy in a public vote involving more than 37,000 participants. With the Oxford University Press aiming to encapsulate the zeitgeist of 2024, brain rot feels like the perfect term to describe a year dominated by endless doomscrolling, viral memes, and TikTok recipes nobody ever cooks.

Dictionary.com declared "demure" the 2024 word of the year after viral videos by TikToker Jools Lebron popularized the term.

The term's popularity skyrocketed after content creator Jools Lebron used it in a now-viral TikTok video, in which she described being "very demure, very mindful"

The word "Demure" was picked as the 2024 "Word of the Year" by Dictionary.com after it gained notoriety this year on TikTok.

Brain rot” beat out five other finalists, including “dynamic pricing,” “lore,” “romantasy,” “slop,” and Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year “demure.” “‘Brain rot’ speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life,

The term “brain rot” has been declared Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year, according to Digi24. The phrase, which captures the worry that endless scrolling through trivial or mind-numbing content is eroding mental sharpness,

Oxford is out with its 2024 word of the year, and it's a term that's appeared on other end-of-year lists: "brain rot," referencing what happens to one's brain when one mindlessly scrolls social media and other trivial online content.