Is bird-dogging your Roman empire? Macquarie Dictionary reveals word of the year finalists | Australia news

“Attention economy”, “bath camp” and “Ozempic face” have little in common other than being three of the Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year finalists for 2025.

The phrases are in the top 15 for both the Australian national dictionary committee’s choice and the people’s choice award, and are joined by other terms such as “AI trend”, “AI boom”.australian sushi”, “I ate (and left no crumbs)” and “The Roman empire”.

Australians have until Sunday night they voted for the public’s choice of word of the year, before the winning words in both categories are announced next Tuesday.

The dictionary’s general editor, Victoria Morgan, said the shortlist took into account words that entered the dictionary last year from categories such as finance, fashion and health.

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“The public is always interested in what’s new, what catches our attention, so this is just an opportunity to let the public see what’s going on.” [and] What resonates with them,” Morgan said.

The shortlist covers a wide range of words, from the more serious “medical misogyny” to the Gen alpha slang “six-seven”, which Morgan said “will continue to cause a lot of confusion, particularly as it is a nonsensical word”.

While older generations probably don’t understand “six-seven,” Morgan said, “I think it’s important not to ignore different areas of the language just because you might not be of that generation or you might not be of that generation, so I think that’s what’s pretty good about the shortlist, is it covers a range?”

Macquarie Dictionary has been awarding words of the year for the last 20 years. The most recent winners were “enshittification” in both categories in 2024, “cozzie livs” by committee’s choice and “generative AI” by public choice in 2023, and “orange” for both in 2022.

Macquarie Dictionary will be the third dictionary to reveal its word of the year for 2025. “Vibe coding” was named the 2025 word of the year by the Collins dictionary earlier this month, with 67 (the numerical form of “six-seven”) selected. Dictionary.com’s word of the year In late October.

Although “six-seven” made the Macquarie Dictionary shortlist, Morgan said he was doubtful it would win the people’s choice award.

“I’m sure if kids understand that or hear about that, they’ll push for ‘six-seven,’ but I don’t think that invalidates our word of the year,” he said.

Here is the full shortlist of Macquarie Dictionary words of the Year and their definitions:

• AI churn – low-quality content created by generative AI, often containing errors and not requested by the user.

• Ate (and left no crumbs) – an expression used to indicate that someone has accomplished or executed something perfectly.

• Attention economy – an economy in which human attention is treated as an important commodity, especially in advertising.

• Australian sushi – any of a variety of thick, uncut sushi rolls with nori wrapped around the filling to be eaten by hand.

• BAL rating – a system that evaluates a building’s potential for exposure to bushfire;

• Bath camping – the act of isolating oneself in the bathroom for a period of time to seek solitude, avoid work, regulate emotions.

• Bird wagging – the act of confronting a politician directly with questions or issues at a public event, intended to draw attention to a particular issue.

• Blind box – a type of mystery box containing an unseen collectible toy or figurine.

• Clanker is an artificial intelligence-based robot that completes tasks normally performed by a human.

• Femgor – a horror subgenre where female protagonists are given a say over the narrative and are not passive, although they may still be victimized, objectified, or exploited to some degree.

• Medical misogyny – entrenched bias against women in the context of medical treatment and information, especially in the field of reproductive health.

• Ozempic face – a condition characterized by wrinkling and sagging of the face after rapid weight loss, resulting from the use of the drug semaglutide.

• Quadball – the new name for real-life Quidditch.

• Roman empire – Any of a variety of events, interests, or topics one finds one frequently thinks about, especially something considered unusual.

• Six-seven – an absurd expression in which each hand is extended to the sides with the palms up and alternately moves each up and down, as if comparing weights. Also 6-7.