Can't There be a Unanimous Word of the Year?

Can't There be a Unanimous Word of the Year?

Every end of the year, this word lover is on the lookout for the word of the year. Out of curiosity, I am particularly interested in what most people in our country and around the world consider to be the most impactful term for the year that was.

I am quite disappointed to note that different word authorities almost always have different choices each year. Why the consistent divergence? If a word is indeed the definitive word of the year, then everyone should have roughly the same choice, yes? it should be that one lone word that reverberated across the world across all social classes in the most significant or impactful way.

Take a look at this example of choices this year, none of which I heard much often. Then again, maybe I am living in my own cave, or under a rock.

- slop: "refers to low-quality, unsolicited, or error-prone content generated by AI that "floods" social media and search results" (Merriam-Webster)
- rage bait: "content deliberately designed to provoke anger or outrage to drive clicks, traffic, and engagement" (Oxford)
- parasocial: "originally describing one-sided celebrity worship, it was updated in 2025 to include the emotional bonds people form with AI chatbots" (Cambridge)
- vibe coding: "a new term for using AI to write software code based on natural language prompts rather than traditional programming logic" (Collins)
- 6 7: a viral cultural shorthand among Gen Alpha, often referring to a specific social media music trend" (Dictionary[.]com)

Admittedly, though, most of these novel words share one thing in common: life in the digital world, particularly the ubiquity of AI.

In my admittedly limited milieu as a neo-probinsyano, my words of the year are largely of a different set. Maybe I am looking at the world through a different lens--that is, a much rarefied one.

The earliest novel expressions I took note of are the following:

Out of a viral trending TikTok post, I was told, the phrase "sobrang Latina, parang munyeka" became trending, and it is supposed to mean "sobrang ganda" or "so beautiful."

"Okay na to!" also became viral because an actor's (Miguel Tanfelix) mother reportedly uses it as her favorite expression when commenting on her son's cooking in their joint cooking video.

There were quite a number of new words that cropped up in the month of September, in particular: I often encountered this strange word among young Filipino men: paldo, paldong-paldo. It is supposed to originally mean "bale" or "a large bundle," but in slang, means "a huge amount of money." Example: Paldong-paldo ka sa OT pay ha! So I guess it is synonymous to "tiba-tiba."

Because of our nation’s tumultuous political life, “forthwith” became suddenly a subject of scrutiny and disdain: the word had something to do with the attempted impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte, an historic first. And upon checking what the Constitution says about the impeachment process, those in the know quoted the relevant passage and began discussing the meaning of the word "forthwith." It apparently means “immediately” or “without delay.” (I must point out it is a word that I, who love big words, have never used).

"Nepo baby," from "nepotism," of course, was as ubiquitous as the common cold virus. Used derisively (or with contempt), it refers to the excessively and unjustifiably rich kids of political dynasties. Unfortunately, other everyday terms that got regarded as evil overnight include: "contractor," "engineer," "politician," and "DPWH." Other frequently used string of words is "flood control ghost projects."

Honorable mentions are: "confidential fund," "unprogrammed fund," "allocable fund."

Of course, all of the above point to the general term, "corruption," which is corrupted to "korap" in Tagalog.

***

Since we are on the topic of language, I couldn’t help but take note of vulgar expressions that a lot of netizens used. (Doesn’t mean I applaud the usage.) But I give in to self-censorship and choose to file them under "Redacted" for the sake of the holy and the pure.

***

A dance song that mentions the word "anxiety" ("Anxiety" by Doechii) became viral, and I thought it is partly because many people were indeed in that mental state due to the preponderance of shocking news around the world.

Since I am into taking note of popular terms, I couldn’t help but notice another word that was used with frequency by netizens: "sumakses," to mean "succeeded." It reminds me of similarly iffy Taglish coinages in recent past such as "nasa-sad ako," to mean nalulungkot ako. Why do I get the feeling that I am not extremely happy about these uglified neologisms? What's the matter with native words like wagi, tagumpay, and lungkot? Ano pa ba ang kulang?

“Weaponize” is a word that I heard often used with a negative intent. It means “to exploit for the purpose of attacking a person or group, or for spreading discord.” Examples: "They find it easier to weaponize the fear and uncertainty of national events." "He spoke about the dangers of cynicism, and how it can be weaponized against us."

I kept on reading this new term as well: “virtue signalling.” It means "the public expression of opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or social conscience or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue" instead of having genuine virtue.

The expression “threw shade” was thrown around as well, so I tried using it, just to be in among the writing circle: “Former sexy star Vivian Velez ‘threw shade’ at Vice Ganda's vulgar and insult style comedy, so netizens enjoyed munching on their digital popcorn while watching how the latest tiff would unfold.”

Lastly, I saw a lot of people on Facebook using "ngani," whatever this Visayan word means, "POV," and "na para bang" so many times.

***

Meanwhile, 11 Filipino words were added to Oxford Dictionary presumably because they are untranslatable and commonly inserted in English conversations among Filipinos and maybe have attained global reach. They are namely, CR, gigil, kababayan, load, lumpia, salakot, sando, Pinoy, terror, Thomasite, and videoke. At this amazing rate of addition, soon Filipino language might become English.

One good thing to come out of this is that these words will no longer be underlined in red each time they are used in Word, or so I expect.

***

So, going back, which among these terms is truly the word (or expression) that is truly reflective of the year that was?

I do care about popularly held opinions (I am fond of analyzing why opinions become popular, particularly those that I strongly dislike, making me question myself). But the above words are among my top candidates. But for that one particular word: I can’t make up my mind just yet. It will take years before I am able to spot the perfect embodiment of 2025, locally and globally. But if I must have one, it has to be a toss-up between "flood control ghost projects" and "paldo" for the local setting and, um, any of the word about AI, with "AI-generated" being the least technical of them all, for the global scene.

What would be yours? I won't judge you.