Russia has selected the ‘Word of the Year’ for 2025!
The winner of an expert vote is the word ‘зумер’ (‘zoomer’), a person from Generation Z.
The word ‘зумер’ has been used in the Russian language for several years and, since 2020, it has steadily entered the National Corpus of the Russian Language. The number of search queries containing this word on the ‘Yandex’ search engine continues to grow.
“The word ‘zoomer’ has entered public discourse and is actively used in the media, as there is currently much talk and writing about this generation. It’s very telling that precisely now it is on everyone's lips, because zoomers were born in the 2000s; they are the very ‘new adults’, who have burst into our lives, are developing, making decisions and building our future,” notes Konstantin Derevyanko, head of Gramota.ru about the Russian language, which organizes the ‘Word of the Year’ campaign annually.
This year, other leading words included:
- ‘Выгорание’ (‘burnout’)
- ‘Промпт’ (‘prompt’),
- ‘Подсветить’ (‘highlight’)
- ‘Ред-флаг’ (‘red flag’)
- And even the interjection ‘пупупу’ (‘pu-pu-pu’)
In 2024, ‘вайб’ (‘vibe’) became ‘Word of the Year’, according to Gramota.ru. And, in 2023, it was ‘нейросеть’ (‘neural network’).
The ‘Word of the Year’ campaign involves 469 authoritative experts in the Russian language, from leading universities to scientific centers across the country.
The selection process takes place in several stages: first, Gramota.ru experts collect materials based on the analysis of social networks, media publications and ‘Telegram’ channels, as well as conduct reader surveys. Then, they compile a longlist based on the frequency of word usage and its dynamics. Finally, the experts, renowned linguists and philologists, vote!
