Do you feel a deep bond with pop stars like Taylor Swift or Lily Allen – even if you’ve never met them?
If you do, then your behavior is “parasocial” and trendy, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, which on Tuesday revealed the adjective as its word of the year for 2025.
Lexicographers picked it in a year they said was marked by interest in the one-sided parasocial relationships people form with celebrities, influencers and AI chatbots.
Parasocial is defined as “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know”.
The term dates back to 1956, when two sociologists from the University of Chicago noted that television viewers developed parasocial relationships with television personalities they viewed in the same way as close friends or family.
As artificial intelligence becomes an ever-increasing part of people’s lives, “slop,” which is getting an updated definition, refers to low-quality AI-generated content flooding the Internet.
New entrants to the Cambridge Dictionary, meanwhile, included “skibidi”, “delulu” and “tradwife”.
The three were among “6,212 new words, phrases and meanings” included in the online dictionary over the past 12 months, it said.
The dictionary only adds words that are believed to have “staying power,” according to one of its lexicographers, Colin McIntosh.
“Internet culture is changing the English language, and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,” he said.
The slang term “skibidi” is described as having various meanings, such as cool or bad.
But it can also be used without any real meaning or as a joke, or in phrases like: “What the hell are you doing?”
“Delulu” is said to be a play on the word delusion.
“Tradwife” is short for traditional wife, meaning a “married woman, especially one who posts on social media, who stays home and cooks, cleans”.
Simone Schnall, professor of experimental social psychology at the University of Cambridge, hailed the parasocial as an “inspired” choice.
“We have entered an age where many people form unhealthy and intense parasocial relationships with influencers.
“Parasocial tendencies take on a new dimension as many people treat AI tools like ChatGPT as ‘friends’ offering positive affirmations or as a proxy for therapy,” he added.
