The 2025 Word of the Year from Collins Dictionary is a tale of two AIs. The winner, “vibe coding,” represents the utopian, creative potential of artificial intelligence, while its main competitor, “clanker,” encapsulates our frustrations and fears of the very same technology.
“Vibe coding,” which took the crown, is the practice of using AI to turn natural language into computer code. Collins’ managing director, Alex Beecroft, called it a “seamless integration of human creativity and machine intelligence,” highlighting its power to make development more accessible. It’s the “good AI” that empowers users.
In contrast, “clanker” represents the “bad AI.” This derogatory term, borrowed from Star Wars, went viral on social media as a way for people to vent their frustrations with clumsy chatbots, biased algorithms, and impersonal automated systems. Its popularity made it a top contender, showing the depth of public distrust.
The victory of “vibe coding” suggests that, for 2025, our hopes for AI ultimately outweighed our fears. The selection, made by lexicographers monitoring a 24-billion-word corpus, shows that the language of AI collaboration is spreading faster than the language of AI rejection.
This tech-heavy list also included “broligarchy” (the tech elite controlling the AI) and “biohacking” (using tech to improve our bodies). Other words like “Henry” (high earner, not rich yet) and “taskmasking” (faking work) reflected the social and economic landscape of this AI-dominated year.