Meaning & use
brain rot
Last updated
a supposed decline in a person's mental or intellectual state, especially from consuming excessive amounts of trivial or low-quality online content
See it in a sentence
He blamed his brain rot on hours of scrolling through mindless short videos every night.
Teachers are increasingly worried about brain rot affecting students' attention spans.
A note on using this word
Though it sounds like recent internet slang, the phrase dates back to the 19th century; its modern meaning exploded in popularity on social media in the early 2020s and it was named a word of the year by Oxford in 2024.
Words with a similar meaning
mental decline
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