Ever feel like you’ve only just wrapped your head around “quiet quitting” and “situationships,” only to be blindsided by a new batch of buzzwords you’ve never heard before? Welcome to 2025 — where language evolves faster than your teenager’s attention span.

Today’s vocabulary is fuelled not by dusty dictionaries, but by TikTok trends, viral memes, and the eternal Gen Z quest to reinvent how we communicate. Words that would’ve sounded like gibberish a few years ago are now part of everyday slang, leaving parents across the world squinting at screens and pretending to know what their kids just said. Gone are the days when “cool” or “awesome” did the trick — now, you’re either “delulu” (delusional) or “based” (apparently a compliment).

It’s no wonder dictionaries are racing to keep up, trying to make sense of this brave new linguistic world. And that brings us neatly to Collins Dictionary’s Words of the Year 2025, which prove just how much our vocabulary reflects the times — especially in a world where artificial intelligence, authenticity, and existential fatigue are all jostling for space in the group chat.

Topping the list is “vibe coding” – which, believe it or not, isn’t about writing moody poetry into your laptop. It’s when AI writes computer code based on your natural-language prompts. Basically, you tell the bot what you want, and it just… does it. Forget syntax; we’re coding by vibes now.

Then there’s “aura farming”, which sounds suspiciously like something your yoga instructor might do on weekends. It’s actually the art of curating your personal brand so perfectly that it looks effortless — even though it’s anything but.

At work, you might already be “taskmasking”, furiously typing nonsense into a spreadsheet while waiting for the clock to hit 5 p.m. Think of it as the spiritual cousin of “quiet quitting” – except with more fake Teams calls.

If you’re one of those high-earning-but-not-rich-yet professionals, congratulations — you’re officially a HENRY. And when you’re too tired from biohacking your mitochondria to function, just take a micro-retirement — a mini-break before your midlife crisis officially begins. Bonus points if you spend it on a coolcation, swapping the Med for misty Iceland because global warming made Spain feel like a sauna.

Of course, no modern glossary is complete without “glazing” (showering someone with over-the-top praise) and “broligarchy” (the billionaire boys’ club running the world — hi Elon!).

In short: 2025’s lexicon perfectly captures our collective confusion — equal parts tech, burnout, and self-improvement. Don’t worry if you haven’t used these in a sentence yet. Just nod knowingly, throw in “vibe coding” at your next meeting, and you’ll sound clanker-free.