Oxford University Press names 'rage bait' word, phrase, of the year

Oxford University Press has named "rage bait" the word, or phrase, of the year, after beating out "aura farming" and "biohack."

"Rage bait" refers to online content that is “deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive,” with the goal of driving traffic to a particular social media account, Oxford said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.

“The person producing it will bask in the millions, quite often, of comments and shares and even likes sometimes,’’ lexicographer Susie Dent told the BBC, which reported Sunday night on Oxford's choice. This is a result of the social media companies' algorithms, “because although we love fluffy cats, we’ll appreciate that we tend to engage more with negative content and content that really provokes us.”

Oxford lexicographers select the word of the year after analyzing new and emerging words, in addition to changes in the way language is being used, to identify words of “cultural significance.”

Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary, has selected a word of the year since 2004.