‘Vibe Coding’ Named Collins Dictionary Word of the Year

If you want to make your own computer program but you don’t know how to code, you can try “vibe coding”.

The word in the Collins Dictionary – which confuses the two words – is the art of creating an app or website by describing it with artificial intelligence (AI) rather than writing programming code.

The term was beaten in February by Openi Co-Founder Andrej Karpathywhich goes with the name representing how AI can make some programmers “forget the code exists” and “give off vibes” while creating a computer program.

This is one of 10 words on a shortlist to reflect the mood, language and preoccupations of 2025.

By giving a simple description like “make me a program that schedules my weekly meals”, people can use “vibe coding” to create basic programming knowledge.

More complex tools require expertise, but opening up the creation of digital platforms to non-coders.

As many have discovered, it’s not perfect – there’s no guarantee that the code will actually work or be free of bugs.

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

Not all words should first appear in 2025 – but Collins has decided that this is the year they become popular.

For example “Clanker”, a term used to describe robots in Star Wars games and movies since the middle of Tiktok in July while sharing people with Ai-Powered machines.

While “Aura Farming” – People who do things to look cool, often when they know they are published in January 2024, but become more popular in the course of 2025.

And the Porthmanteau “Broligarchy” stops in 2024 to describe the owners of the world’s biggest technology companies and their political influence – and is used regularly in 2025 Following the appearance of most of the bosses of the US President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Other definitions on the shortlist are:

• Beehackingthe activity of altering the body’s natural processes in an attempt to promote health and longevity

• It’s colda holiday in a place with a cool climate

• confused, to praise or flatter someone excessively or inappropriately

• challengeacronym for “High Income, not yet rich”, or a person who does not get much wealth from their high income

• Micro-Retirement, a break taken between periods of work to pursue personal interests

• Taskmaskingthe act of giving a false impression that one is productive at work