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The Cambridge Dictionary has revealed that word of the year For 2025: ‘Parasocial’.
‘Parasocial’ is defined as the connection that a person feels between himself and a famous person he does not know.
Psychologists have observed that the rise of one-sided antisocial relationships has redefined fans and celebrity.
For example, when pop star Taylor Swift and American footballer Travis Kelce Announced their engagement earlier this yearMany fans felt a strong connection to him, even though most had not met him.
The parasocial relationships people create with online influencers and artificial intelligence chatbots have also been highlighted as part of a growing trend.
Colin Mackintosh of Cambridge Dictionary said: “Parasocial captures the zeitgeist of 2025. It’s a great example of how language changes.
“What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream. Millions of people are engaged in parasocial interactions; many are surprised by their rise.
“The data shows that, on the Cambridge Dictionary website, lookups for ‘parasocial’ have seen an increase.
“With advances and changes in technology, society, and culture, the language surrounding the parasocial phenomenon is rapidly evolving. From celebrities to chatbots, parasocial trends are fascinating to those interested in the evolution of language.”
The term parasocial originated in 1956, when two sociologists at the University of Chicago observed that television viewers engaged in parasocial relationships with on-screen personalities that were modeled on their “real” family and friends.
He noted how the rapidly growing medium of television brought actors’ faces directly into audiences’ homes, making them involved in people’s lives.
Simon Schnall, professor of experimental social psychology at the University of Cambridge, said that parasocial was an “inspired choice” for the word of the year.
“The rise of parasocial relationships has redefined the way ordinary people interact with fandom, celebrity, and AI online,” he said.
“We have entered an era where many people form unhealthy and intense parasocial relationships with influential people. This leads to a sense that people ‘know’ those with whom they form parasocial bonds, can trust them, and even reach extreme forms of loyalty. Yet this is entirely one-sided.
“As trust in mainstream and traditional media erodes, people look to individual personalities as authorities, and – as they spend many hours consuming their content – they develop parasocial bonds, treating them like close friends, family or cult leaders.
“When an influencer has so many followers, people assume they are trustworthy.”
He continued: “There is a more traditional and healthy expression of fandom as people develop parasocial relationships with stars like Taylor Swift who are exceptionally good at what they do, but this can also lead to obsessive interpretation of songs and intense online discussions about their meaning and what they mean to fans, as well as Swift herself.
“Parasocial trends are taking on a new dimension as many people consider AI tools like ChatGPT as ‘friends’, offering positive affirmations, or as a proxy for therapy.
“It’s an illusion of a relationship and groupthink, and we know young people can be susceptible to that.”
The Cambridge Dictionary has added nearly 6,000 new words this year, including “delulu”, a word based on the confusing, obscure word “skibidi”, and “treadwife”, short for traditional wife.
Other terms making an impact this year include “sloping”, a reference to the very low quality content on the Internet, especially when it is created by artificial intelligence.
The second is to “memeify”, which means turning an event, image or person into a meme – an idea, joke, image or video that spreads rapidly on the Internet.