clickbait

What it means

A headline, thumbnail, or caption deliberately engineered to be sensational or misleading so you can't resist clicking, even though the actual content rarely delivers on the hype. It can also be used as an adjective to describe that kind of content (a clickbait title).

Examples

• "You won't BELIEVE what happens next" — peak clickbait, I clicked anyway.
• The thumbnail was pure clickbait, the video was 20 minutes of nothing.
• Don't fall for clickbait headlines during election season, please.
• Her whole channel is clickbait but somehow I keep watching.

Where it comes from

Coined in the late 2000s as web publishing chased ad revenue and page views; it exploded alongside outlets like Upworthy and BuzzFeed in the early 2010s and the rise of YouTube thumbnails.

Related slang