The term “vibe coding” has been named the Collins Word of the Year for 2025, beating contenders like “clanker”, “glaze” and “aura farming”.
Vibe coding refers to an emerging software development process that turns natural language into computer code using AI.
The term, coined in February by Andrej Karpathy, former director of AI at Tesla and a founding engineer at OpenAI, essentially outlines how a person can now prioritise describing what they need to AI so it can generate code on their behalf, rather than writing code line-by-line themselves.
Lexicographers at Collins monitor the Collins Corpus, a 24 billion-word database which draws from a range of media sources, including social media, to create the annual list of new and notable words.
Vibe coding was in close contention with “clanker” – a derogatory term for computers, robots, or sources of AI, often used on social media to express frustrations and distrust in AI chatbots and platforms, and “glaze” – to praise or flatter someone excessively or undeservedly.
Other popular terms considered were “aura farming” – the practice of trying to look cool through the deliberate cultivation of a distinctive and charismatic persona, and “broligarchy” – referring to the owners of the biggest global technology companies, informally known as “tech bros”.
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Here are some of the other contenders:
• Biohacking – also referred to as “do-it-yourself biology”. This describes the activity of altering the natural processes of one’s body in an attempt to enhance physical wellbeing and extend lifespan.
• Micro-retirement – a term often used by Gen Z and millennials to describe taking a break between periods of employment in order to pursue personal interests.
• Coolcation – a holiday in a place with a cool climate, as temperatures soar where they live or where they typically spent their holidays.
• Taskmasking – the act of giving a false impression that one is being productive in the workplace.
• HENRY – an acronym for “high earner, not rich yet”. Refers to someone who has a large income but hasn’t saved a lot.
Collins’ top words of the year can leave some feeling culturally informed and others completely out of touch.
Here are the previous Collins words going back 10 years – how many do you recognise?
2015: Binge-watch – defined as viewing more than three episodes of a series in one day.
2016: Brexit – the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union.
2017: Fake news – defined as “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting,” it has remained one of Donald Trump’s catchphrases during his second term.
2018: Single-use – popularised by the increasing call to ban materials that damage the environment and pollute the food chain.
2019: Climate strike – a form of protest popularised by activist Greta Thunberg, where demonstrators skip work or school to raise awareness of climate change.
2020: Lockdown – chosen in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Collins defined lockdown as “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces”.
2021: NFT – the abbreviation for non-fungible token – clinched the top spot. In case you still don’t get it, an NFT is a unique digital identifier that records ownership of a digital creation asset. This can be a picture, a video, a piece of music or even a tweet.
2022: Permacrisis – defined as “an extended period of instability and insecurity,” this one came during the year the Ukraine war began, the cost-of-living crisis worsened significantly and political tensions increased.
2023: AI – the abbreviation of artificial intelligence took the top spot, with AI becoming the dominant conversation worldwide after ChatGPT was launched in November 2022.
2024: Brat – popularised by British singer Charli XCX, brat took on a new meaning last year as a lifestyle “characterised by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude”.
