“I’m a brat when I’m bumpin’ that,” sings Charli xcx on her single “360” from her sixth studio album, Brat. As Charli explained in a TikTok video, a “brat” is a girl who “is a little messy and likes to party, and maybe does dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also has a breakdown but kind of parties through it, is very honest, very blunt, very volatile – that’s brat. You’re brat.” Since the album’s release, the word has taken on a life of its own. The album’s jarring shade of green has become known as ‘brat green’; we’ve had ‘brat summer’; and even the potential future leader of the United States, Kamala Harris, embraced the term when she announced her presidential campaign.

This cultural surge has led to ‘brat’ being crowned Word of the Year by the Collins English Dictionary. Originally, Collins defined a ‘brat’ as “someone, especially a child… who behaves badly or annoys others.” But this year, it’s been redefined as “characterised by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.”

The other words in the top ten list include ‘brain rot,’ ‘era’ (popularised by Taylor Swift’s Eras tour), ‘looksmaxxing,’ ‘rawdogging,’ ‘delulu,’ ‘yapping,’ ‘anti-tourism,’ ‘supermajority,’ and ‘romantasy’ (a blend of romantic fiction and fantasy).