The Words of the Year

A Look Back That Says It All.

I see you 👀

It’s the season for year-in-review summaries, and dictionaries are all in. Oxford crowned brain rot, a term describing the anxiety caused by the overconsumption of mediocre online content. In just one year, its usage surged by 230% — a reflection of an era trapped in its own excesses.

At Collins, the shortlist included yapping, those noisy, almost canine chitchats, or delulu, a mocking contraction of "delusional" for dreams too far removed from reality. But it was brat that triumphed: from spoiled child to icon of unapologetic insolence.

Staying in a poetic vein, enshittification was crowned by the Australian Dictionary, describing the slow and inevitable decline of online platforms. As for Pantone, the chromatic prophecy has been revealed: Mocha Mousse for 2025.

Some see the underbrush, but to me, it’s just... well, the shit, no sugarcoating.

A choice that, in my view, reflects an era struggling to digest what it consumes, desperately clinging to the illusion that form could still save the substance.

Words in Tension

Yet, a few glimmers of hope emerge amidst the turmoil of our modern lexicon.

Dictionary.com chose demure, a word imbued with modesty and restraint, almost anachronistic in the face of the loud exuberance of our times. Over at Collins, manifest is the winner, a term rich in subtext, oscillating between assertive demands and the need to exist.

What ties these words together? Their ability to embody a deep tension: between light and shadow, between overconnection and exhaustion, between the desire to aspire and the fear of losing oneself. They capture an era where everyone is struggling to find meaning, a fragile balance in a world hungry for more: more noise, more attention, more effort.

But these words are not mere passive reflections. They question our times, revealing the cracks in a society that confuses movement with progress, speed with meaning.

Embrace the Liminal

And so, I offer you another word. My word. Ancient, yet carrying a unique weight.

Liminal.

This word evokes the threshold of the perceptible, an in-between space filled with waiting and uncertainty. On the subreddit r/LiminalSpace, which grew from 500 members in 2020 to over 867,000 today, thousands share images of empty corridors and deserted parking lots. These spaces, usually passed by without a second thought, become powerful metaphors when placed at the center: they remind us of how fast we move, often forgetting to stop and look. They invite us to pay attention to the subordinate. These spaces then transform into moments of contemplation, and to contemplate is to relearn how to give weight to the world.

After years of instability—pandemics, social fractures, political crises—we are all, in one way or another, in an in-between space. A place where, despite uncertainty, something can emerge.

For to be in the liminal is not to be lost. It is to inhabit a threshold: the place where everything can transform.

MD