Cambridge Dictionary revealed its word of the year 2025 and it’s related to Taylor Swift..?!

Cambridge Dictionary has announced its word of the year 2025, and it’s a far cry away from last year’s “manifest”.

“Parasocial” has been selected as the Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year, referring to a relationship someone feels they have with a famous person they do not know.

The word is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc, or an artificial intelligence”.

These parasocial dynamics have emerged across the year, most memorably in the internet’s engagement with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce following their engagement announcement.

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Another example from the dictionary is Lily Allen’s breakup album West End Girl, which tapped into the public’s parasocial fascination with her love life.

It also highlighted the rise of parasocial relationships with AI bots, where people began treating them as “a confidant, friend or romantic partner.”

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The term “parasocial” dates back to 1956. The word was first coined by University of Chicago sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl, who observed television viewers engaging in “para-social” relationships with on-screen personalities.

These “relationships” resembled those they formed with “real” family and friends.

Recently, it has been used to describe “a type of relationship, between a person and a non-person, for example a celebrity,” Chief editor Colin McIntosh explains.

“It was originally coined as an academic word and was confined to the academic sphere for quite a long time.

“It’s only fairly recently that it’s made a shift into popular language and it’s one of those words that have been influenced by social media,” he added.

The dictionary saw a surge in people looking up the word after the YouTube star IShowSpeed blocked an “obsessive fan” as his “number one parasocial”.

The rapidly expanding medium of television brought the faces of actors directly into viewer’s homes, making them prominent aspects in people’s lives.

The confessional nature of podcast hosts have also said to “replace real friends and to catalyse parasocial relationships.”

Simone Schnall, Professor of Experimental Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge, said: “Parasocial is the perfect word of the year.

“We’ve enterered an age where many people form unhealthy and intense parasocial relationships with influencers.

“This leads to a sense that people ‘know’ those they form parasocial bonds with, can trust them and even to extreme forms of loyalty. Yet it’s completely one sided”.

Senior editor Jessica Rundell said: “We’re not here to judge what’s a good word, what’s a bad word and whether it’s valid – it’s more if it stands the test of time and if people are using it all over the place”.

New entrants to the Cambridge Dictionary include the words “skibidi, delulu and tradwife.”

Featured image via Canva, YouTube and Instagram @lilyallen