‘Vibe coding’ named word of the year by Collins Dictionary

If you happen to’ve ever needed to create your personal pc program however by no means learnt code, you would possibly attempt “vibe coding”.

Collins Dictionary’s phrase of the 12 months – which is confusingly made up of two phrases – is the artwork of creating an app or web site by describing it to synthetic intelligence (AI) somewhat than by writing programming code manually.

The time period was coined in February by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, who got here up with the identify to characterize how AI can let some programmers “overlook that the code even exists” and “give in to the vibes” whereas making a pc program.

It was one in all 10 phrases on a shortlist to mirror the temper, language and preoccupations of 2025.

By giving an AI device a easy description akin to “make me a program that schedules my weekly meals”, individuals can use “vibe coding” to make fundamental apps with none earlier programming data.

Extra sophisticated instruments nonetheless require talent, however the apply has opened up creating digital platforms to non-coders.

As many have found, it is not excellent – with no assure the code will really work or be freed from bugs.

Alex Beecroft, the Managing Director of Collins, mentioned the time period “completely captures how language is evolving alongside expertise”.

Not all of the phrases essentially first emerged in 2025 – however Collins determined this was the 12 months they grew to become widespread.

For instance “clanker”, a time period used to explain robots in Star Wars video games and films because the mid 2000s, made the record after it went viral on TikTok in July as individuals shared their frustrations with AI-powered machines.

Whereas “aura farming” – individuals doing issues for the sake of wanting cool, usually once they know they’re being filmed – was first utilized in January 2024, however grew to become more and more widespread over the course of 2025.

And the portmanteau “broligarchy” took off in 2024 to explain the house owners of the world’s largest expertise firms and their purported political affect – and was used often in 2025 following the appearance of many of the bosses at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The opposite definitions within the shortlist had been:

• Biohacking, the exercise of altering the pure processes of 1’s physique in an try to enhance one’s well being and longevity

• Coolcation, a vacation in a spot with a cool local weather

• Glaze, to reward or flatter somebody excessively or undeservedly

• Henry, acronym for “excessive earner, not wealthy but”, or an individual who has not accrued substantial wealth from their excessive revenue

• Micro-retirement, a break taken between durations of employment with a purpose to pursue private pursuits

• Taskmasking, the act of giving a misunderstanding that one is being productive within the office