Cambridge Dictionary names ‘parasocial’ as 2025 Word of the Year

Photo credit: Cambridge University Press & Assessment 

Cambridge Dictionary has selected “parasocial” as its Word of the Year for 2025, highlighting growing global concern over one-sided emotional attachments formed with celebrities, influencers, and increasingly, artificial intelligence.

The term describes a relationship in which a person feels a personal bond with someone they have never met, whether a public figure, fictional character, or AI system. Cambridge defines it as a connection “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know … or an artificial intelligence.”

This year marks only the second time an adjective has been named Word of the Year, following “paranoid” in 2016.

Originally coined in 1956 by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl to explain how television audiences bonded with media personalities, the term has resurfaced strongly in the digital era. Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the dictionary’s publisher, says public interest in parasocial interactions rose sharply in 2025, driven by the expanding influence of online creators and the rise of human-like AI tools.

Simone Schnall, Professor of Experimental Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge, called the selection fitting for the moment.

“The rise of parasocial relationships has redefined fandom, celebrity and, with AI, how ordinary people interact online,” she said.

CNN and Euronews have both reported a surge in discussions around parasocial behaviour this year, particularly as more people form emotional attachments with AI chatbots.

Colin McIntosh, a lexicographer at Cambridge Dictionary, said the word “captures the 2025 zeitgeist” and demonstrates how quickly language evolves. “What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream,” he said.

The dictionary has also added or updated several AI-related terms this year, including “slop,” referring to low-quality online content often generated by artificial intelligence.