Collins Dictionary has now formally adopted “vibe coding” as its Word of the Year for 2025. This upcoming milestone marks an exciting new chapter in LLS’s relationship with the technology landscape. Vibe coding is a novel approach to software development. It gives creative freedom to citizens to use AI that just released to turn natural language into instructions a computer can understand. That science-driven, results-focused approach is what’s turning the tech industry upside down. Now anybody without any real programming skills can whip out an application!
Andrej Karpathy, a former director of AI at Tesla, is one of the founding engineers at OpenAI. He came up with the term vibe coding. He likened it to a makerspace where children can create new apps while “losing track of the fact that the code is there.” This is a profound change in our relationship with technology—moving from a binary input-output relationship to something far more natural. Now, coding is an enabler of human creativity rather than a technical barrier.
Collins Dictionary recorded a 1000% increase in the term’s use since it debuted in February of this year. The increasing popularity aligned with some sensational cultural moments that captured public imagination. The most notable of these was a viral video of the youth dancing to music renowned for his “boat kid” video. The movement quickly became a runaway trend for the stars, with American football player Travis Kelce kicking off stardom. This influx of applications cemented vibe coding’s place in contemporary parlance.
Alex Beecroft, managing director of Collins, stated, “The selection of vibe coding as Collins’ word of the year perfectly captures how language is evolving alongside technology. It signals a major shift in software development, where AI is making coding more accessible.” He further emphasized the transformative nature of this development, noting, “The seamless integration of human creativity and machine intelligence demonstrates how natural language is fundamentally changing our interaction with computers.”
Beyond vibe coding, several other terms became buzzwords this year. The term “Henry” — short for “high earner, not rich yet” — became a buzzword in 2020. At the same time, the other “glaze”—meaning over praise or laurels not earned—had a spike as well. The founders of the first generation of large global technology companies acquired the unofficial moniker of “broligarchy.” This last term was coined when they famously showed up to Donald Trump’s inauguration.