# Oxford Word of the Year: brain rot

> Oxford named brain rot its winner after a public vote involving over 37,000 people.

- Owner: Oxford University Press
- Kind: Campaign
- Sector: Media & publishing
- Seed date: 2024-11-14
- Milestone date: Week of Dec 2, 2024
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak. Some dates are known only to the week, month or year.
- Spread Score: 29 (Niche, provisional), v1.3
- Mechanics: Newsjacking, Platform jump, Controversy, Pairing

## Summary

Oxford opened a public shortlist vote, drew news coverage, then named brain rot its winner. The Guardian made a quiz. The phrase later entered the OED and Oxford’s API datasets.

## Timeline

- 2024-11-14 — Oxford University Press (Open web) — Oxford opened voting on a shortlist that included brain rot.
- 2024-11-18 — BBC News (Press) — BBC News asked what Oxford’s word of the year should be.
- 2024-11-28 — Oxford University Press (Open web) — Oxford’s public-vote deadline fell before its experts’ final selection.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/mcp#api).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/oxford-word-of-the-year-brain-rot

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Oxford Word of the Year: brain rot.” Case HIS-01722. Spread Score v1.3: 29/100. Updated 2026-10-26. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01722