The Oxford Dictionary has named the word ‘peace’ as the children’s word of 2025, while ‘six-seven’ has topped the list of the most popular slang.
For over a decade, experts and academics have been studying children’s language, tracking how children use words to describe their emotions, feelings, and experiences, according to the study’s authors. This year’s study surveyed nearly 5,000 children aged 6 to 14 from across the UK.
Based on the most common responses, the researchers shortlisted three words: ‘peace’, ‘artificial intelligence’, and ‘sustainability’. The children were then asked to vote for the word they thought best reflected the year 2025. According to the results of the vote, “peace” received 35% of the votes, “AI” came in second with 33%, and “resilience” was chosen by 21% of participants.
The study showed that children closely follow world events. When explaining their choice of the word “peace”, every tenth child mentioned war, and some of those surveyed directly named specific conflicts, in particular in Ukraine and Gaza. The words “need, “” want, and “have” were often used in the answers when discussing the desire for peace in the world.
In addition, the researchers analyzed the Oxford Children’s Corpus—the world’s largest database of English-language texts created by and for children, containing more than half a billion words. The analysis showed that the number of mentions of the word “peace” in children’s stories submitted to the BBC 500 Words competition has increased by 60% since 2015.
The phrase “artificial intelligence” ranks second for the second year in a row. A fifth of the children surveyed (20%) explained their choice by saying they constantly hear and talk about artificial intelligence, indicating its widespread presence in everyday life. As last year, most emotional reactions to this word were positive: more than one in ten children used the words “interesting” or “exciting”.
The youngest survey participants’ awareness was especially evident: 29% of children aged 6-8 chose “AI” as the word of the year, which, according to the researchers, demonstrates early awareness of technology’s role in everyday life.
Separately, children were asked to name the slang word of the year. The phrase “six-seven” received the most excellent support, with 47% of participants voting for it. This is followed by “aura” (24%) and “delulu” (a person who lives in illusions, believes in the unreal, or has excessive, often unfounded expectations) (7%).
The study showed that the use of the word “six-seven” is often associated with friendly communication and a sense of belonging to a group. Almost every tenth child mentioned the word “friends” when describing how they use this expression, and more than a quarter of those surveyed (28%) associated it with fun and laughter. At the same time, 12% of children said this word has no specific meaning for them, but 72% of those surveyed consider it important to have words they use only when communicating with friends.