Collins Dictionary's Word Of The Year Is 'Vibe Coding.' WTF Does That Mean?

Last year, Collins Dictionary’s word of 2024 was “Brat”, based on the online phenomenon caused by Charli XCX’s mega-hit album. This year, their pick is similarly Very Online: they’ve chosen “vibe coding” (technically two words, but hey, they’re the language experts). The dictionary said that the term “was popularised by Andrej Karpathy, former Director of AI at Tesla and founding engineer at OpenAI, to describe how AI enables creative output while he could ‘forget that the code even exists’”. All well and good – but, sorry, just quickly, WTF does that actually mean?There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. It's possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting too good. Also I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper…— Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy) February 2, 2025What does “vibe coding” mean? To understand “vibe coding,” you need to know the difference between a large language model (LLM) prompt, ie telling ChatGPT to “list five great restaurants near me,” and traditional coding. Coding is written in a programming language, like C++, Java, and SQL. The idea behind traditional coding is that you need to use a computer-friendly language, like those listed above, to get it to do things like build a website or show an image. “Code converts human input into numerical sequences that computers understand,” ComputerScience.org said. Think of code as a kind of language you must be fluent in to get computers to follow your commands.The idea behind “vibe coding” is that LLMs and other AI will allow people to use plain, spoken language to do those same jobs, without a translator. Collins Dictionary describes it as “an emerging software development that turns natural language into computer code using AI”.The controversial topic has worried some, who fear it might lead to security risks, over-reliance on LLMs, mistakes which can’t be explained or traced back, and unoptimised and laggy code.Additionally, the code AI makes is only likely to be as good as the prompt it gets, while developers ought to test, review, and refine any AI-generated code.“While tech experts debate whether it’s revolutionary or reckless, the term has resonated far beyond Silicon Valley, speaking to a broader cultural shift towards AI-assisted everything in everyday life,” Collins Dictionary explained.What were Collins Dictionary’s other candidates for word of the year? Though “vibe coding” won out for 2025, there were some other, zeitgeist-y options up for consideration, too. Runners-up included aura farming, taskmasking, brogliarchy, aura farming, clanker, and biohacker.“Many words on this year’s shortlist speak to fundamental tensions: we’re embracing AI and technology (vibe coding) whilst simultaneously resisting it (clanker, broligarchy, taskmasking). We’re chasing authenticity (calling out glazing) whilst polishing our own public personas online and offline (aura farming),” the dictionary explained. “In 2025, it’s more apparent than ever that people contain multitudes, and this year’s Word of the Year list encapsulates what it means to be human in the age of AI.” Related...People Are Just Learning What The 'Most Complex' Word In English Is, And HuhThis Type Of Intelligence May Predict How Long You'll LiveHumanity Could 'Lose Control' Of Artificial Intelligence, Warns Rishi Sunak

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