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What's the Word?

ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES—DENIS NOVIKOV

If you mindlessly use an electronic device for too long, you might start to experience “brain rot.” The term is the 2024 Word of the Year.

Oxford University Press revealed its choice on December 2. A person is said to suffer from brain rot after looking at too much unimportant content online. It’s “one of the perceived dangers of virtual life,” said Casper Grathwohl in a statement. He’s president of Oxford Languages.