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

If you've ever wanted to create your own computer program but never learned to code, you might want to try “vibe coding.”

Collins Dictionary's Word of the Year, which is mistakenly made up of two words, is the art of creating an application or website by describing it to artificial intelligence (AI) rather than by manually writing program code.

This term was coined in February OpenAI co-founder Andrey Karpatiywho came up with the name to show how AI can allow some programmers to “forget that the code even exists” and “give in to the vibrations” when creating a computer program.

It was one of 10 words shortlisted to reflect the mood, language and concerns of 2025.

By giving an AI tool a simple description, such as “make me a program that plans my weekly meals,” people can use “vibration coding” to create basic applications without any prior programming knowledge.

More complex tools still require skill, but the practice has opened up the possibility of creating digital platforms for non-programmers.

As many have discovered, it's not perfect—there's no guarantee that the code will actually work or be bug-free.

Alex Beecroft, managing director of Collins, said the term “perfectly captures how language evolves with technology.”

Not all words necessarily first appeared in 2025, but Collins thought that was the year they became popular.

For example, the term “bell,” used to describe robots in Star Wars games and films since the mid-2000s, made the list after it went viral on TikTok in July as people shared their frustrations with artificially intelligent machines.

And “aura farming” – people doing things for the sake of looking cool, often knowing they're being filmed – was first used in January 2024, but became increasingly popular throughout 2025.

And the word “bro-ligarchy” emerged in 2024 to describe the owners of the world's largest tech companies and their perceived political influence—and was used frequently in 2025. after many bosses appeared at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

Other shortlisted definitions were:

• Biohackingactivities to change the natural processes of your body in order to improve your health and longevity.

• Coolingvacation in a place with a cool climate

• Glaze, to praise or flatter someone excessively or unfairly

• Henryan acronym for “high earner, not yet rich” or a person who has not accumulated significant wealth from their high income.

• Micropension, a break between periods of work to satisfy personal interests

• Masking tasksthe act of creating a false impression that a person is productive in the workplace.