Taylor Swift and her fiancé, Travis Kelce, who are known for making headlines about their love life, inspired a surprising new term.
As the Fate of the Ophelia crooner’s cultural impact continues to grow, the Cambridge Dictionary credited Swift and her fan base for creating the 2025 word of the year: “parasocial.”
The term dates back to 1956, when American sociologists observed TV viewers engaging in “para-social” relationships with on-screen personalities.
According to the Music Times, the Cambridge University Press & Assessment stated that the word choice reflects a rising trend in how fans engage with celebrities in the digital era.
The word first went viral when Swift and Kelce got engaged, and many fans “felt a deep connection to the singer and American footballer, even though most had never met them.”
According to the dictionary, the word is defined as, “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc, or an artificial intelligence.”
The University Press further explained, “Millions of fans related to Taylor Swift’s confessional lyrics about dating, heartbreak and desire, leading to what psychologists describe as ‘parasocial bonds with stars.'”
Colin McIntosh, chief editor of the Cambridge Dictionary, added, “It was originally coined as an academic word and was confined to the academic sphere for quite a long time.”
He concluded, “It’s only fairly recently that it’s made a shift into popular language, and it’s one of those words that have been influenced by social media.”
Apart from parasocial, the Cambridge Dictionary included skibidi, delulu and tradwife as new words of the year 2025.
