If you felt a personal connection with a celebrity this year, you likely weren’t alone.
That feeling led Cambridge Dictionary to select “parasocial” as its 2025 word of the year. Parasocial 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.”
It’s an academic term that has only been around for about 70 years, but it has now become mainstream, said Colin McIntosh, the lexical program manager for Cambridge Dictionary.
“Millions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by their rise,” McIntosh said in a statement. “The data reflects that, with the Cambridge Dictionary website seeing spikes in lookups for ‘parasocial.'”
A recent example of this happened when pop star Taylor Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce announced their engagement. Many fans who have been captivated by Swift’s lyrics for years celebrated the moment despite not actually knowing her or Kelce.
But parasocial relationships can become problematic, Simone Schnall, a professor of experimental social psychology at the University of Cambridge, said.
“We’ve entered an age where many people form unhealthy and intense parasocial relationships with influencers,” Schnall said. “This leads to a sense that people ‘know’ those they form parasocial bonds with, can trust them and even to extreme forms of loyalty. Yet it’s completely one sided.”
The trend is also evolving to include artificial intelligence.
“Parasocial trends take on a new dimension as many people treat AI tools like ChatGPT as ‘friends,’ offering positive affirmations, or as a proxy for therapy. This is an illusion of a relationship and group think, and we know young people can be susceptible for this,” Schnall said.
Cambridge Dictionary’s announcement follows Dictionary.com naming “67” as its 2025 word of the year.
