brainrot

What it means

The mental mush that comes from consuming too much low-quality, repetitive online content, or the absurd content itself. It describes both the foggy, over-scrolled feeling and the niche, nonsensical memes that fuel it.

Examples

• I've watched so many short videos I have full brainrot.
• That meme is pure brainrot but I can't stop laughing.
• Sorry, my vocabulary is just brainrot slang now.
• Six hours of scrolling gave me serious brainrot.

Where it comes from

The concept of 'brain rot' from overconsumption is old, but the slang exploded on TikTok in 2023–2024 around hyper-absurd, algorithm-driven memes. It was named Oxford's Word of the Year in 2024.

Related slang