Parasocial
Saber Conectado, 18 December 2025.
Every year the Cambridge Dictionary team reunites to search and study data to decide which word deserves the title of Word of the Year. The team explains how the selection process works:
“When we choose the Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year, we have three considerations: user data, zeitgeist, and language. Which word was looked up most, or spiked? Which one really captures what was happening in that year? And what is interesting about this word from a language point of view?” (Rundell, 2024).
This year, on November 18th, the chosen word was parasocial.
“As social media intensifies the intimacy that fans feel with their adored celebrities, and with the rise in popularity of AI companions that can take on personalities, the word for these one-way relationships – parasocial – is having its own moment.” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2025)
Parasocial definition
Cambridge dictionary defines:
parasocial – adjective
Involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc., or an artificial intelligence.
Collocations
parasocial relationship, parasocial relation, parasocial interaction, parasocial connection, parasocial grief, and parasocial breakup
Parasocial relationship: Psychologists have long known that people can engage in parasocial relationships with fictional characters;
Parasocial relation: Parasocial relations could bring the same benefits to young people as social relationships;
Parasocial interaction: People who experience parasocial interactions (PSIs) come to consider media personalities, such as movie stars and influencers, as friends, despite having no interactions with them;
Parasocial connection: parasocial connection Toddlers have a tendency to form parasocial connections with characters they encounter in TV shows;
Parasocial grief: Grieving someone you’ve never met is called parasocial grief, and a lot of us are feeling it over the death of the young star;
Parasocial breakup: Those who go through the termination of a parasocial relationship – a parasocial breakup – can experience feelings of grief and loss.
Context
According to the editorial by the Cambridge Dictionary (2025), “Lookups of parasocial on the Cambridge Dictionary spiked on June 30, 2025, when the YouTube streamer IShowSpeed blocked a fan who identified as his “number 1 parasocial”.
In the public figure’s context, when Taylor Swift announced her engagement with Travis Kelce, many fans felt a deep connection to them, even though most had never met them; “Millions of fans related to Taylor Swift’s confessional lyrics about dating, heartbreak and desire, leading to what psychologists describe as “parasocial” bonds with stars” (Cambridge English, 2025).
Here is an article writen bu Milmo (2025) on The Guardian, with an example of the word parasocial:
Image source: The Guardian
In the video below, Professor Simone Schnall (Professor of Experimental Social Psychology, University of Cambridge) explanes how and why people form parasocial relationships:
The discussion about parasocial relationships is neither new nor limited to 2025; the issue has been debated for years. For example, in the K-pop community, parasocial relationships have been a challenge. Many users discuss this on social networks such as X (Twitter) and Reddit. In addition to that, magazines have already published articles on the subject:
The Kpop community’s exaggeration about Parasocial relationships (Reddit);
Karina and capitalism of parasocial K-pop relationships (The Korea Times – image posted on our Instagram) ;
In defence of parasocial relationships: Why K-pop fan culture is healthier than you think (Vogue).
REFERENCES
CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH. ‘Parasocial’ is Cambridge’s Dictionary’s Word of the Year. Cambridge English, 2025. Acessed: 11 Dec. 2025.
MILMO, Dan. Feel a connection to a celebrity you don’t know? There’s a word for that. The Guardian. 18 Nov. 2025. Acessed: 14 Dec. 2025.
PARASOCIAL. Cambridge Dictionary, 2025. Acessed: 12 Dec. 2025.
RUNDELL, Jessica. Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2024. About Words – Cambridge Dictionary Blog, 20 Nov. 2024. Acessed: 12 Dec. 2025.
