January 1, 2026 07:57 AM IST First published on: Jan 1, 2026 at 07:56 AM ISTIn the year 2025 of the Common Era, as with so many of its predecessors, there was a scramble in the last few months by publishers of dictionaries (a tool that was made obsolete long before AI, by the internet) to find a “word of the year”. From “rage bait” (Oxford) and “slop” (Merriam-Webster) to “parasocial” (Cambridge) and “agentic” (Dictionary.com), each tried to find a word that spoke to the year gone by. Well tried, and half done. For a long time, before artificial intelligence, the true “slop” has been jargon and cliché, the ultimate rage bait. And in 2025, too, there were words that were constantly deployed to say mostly nothing.Perhaps the biggest red herring was a simple word, used by laypeople every day when they strike a bargain. In 2025, every “deal” became a mystery, an announcement followed by a waiting game. The man with the orange tan has announced deals — on peace and trade — but wars continue, and the “strong fundamentals” of bilateral ties continue not to deliver. But, policy wonks and mandarins tell us, there is nothing much to worry about. “Navigating uncertainty” is something India is apparently excellent at, and “walking the diplomatic tightrope” isn’t the same as sitting on the sidelines. And then, a new “multilateralism” can save the “rules-based order”. Phew. Then, of course, there is the promise and panic around AI. People who are otherwise unable to start a task manager on Windows XP will tell the world how to set up “guardrails” around cutting-edge technology.AdvertisementWhy are such fancy words used to say so little? The answer may lie in a phenomenon that young people discover as they start “adulting”. No one really knows the why or even the how of what goes on. Some people just fake it better.