Peace named Oxford Children’s Word of the Year for 2025

Young people from across the UK have voted for peace as the Oxford Children’s Word of the Year for 2025.

For more than a decade, our experts and academic researchers have tracked and analysed the evolution of children’s language and how it is used to reflect their emotions and experiences each year.

In 2025, we surveyed opinions from almost 5,000 children across the UK aged 6-14 years old. Based on the most common responses and themes, we shortlisted three words—peace, AI, and resilience—and asked young people to vote for their preferred winning word.

In the final results, peace came out on top with 35% of the vote, narrowly followed by AI (33%), whilst 21% opted for resilience.

Peace chosen in response to global conflicts

Our research highlighted children’s awareness of current affairs. When asked why they chose peace, one in ten children mentioned ‘war’, whilst some highlighted specific conflicts such as ‘Ukraine’ or ‘Gaza’. Words such as ‘need’, ‘want’, and ‘should’ were frequently mentioned in their answers when calling for peace across the world.

A study of the Oxford Children’s Corpus—the world’s largest database of writing by and for children in the English language containing over half a billion words—reveals mentions of peace in children’s stories submitted to the BBC 500 Words competition has increased by 60% since 2015.

AI selected as runner-up for the second year in a row

For the second year running, children selected AI as the runner-up. When asked why they chose the word, a fifth of children (20%) mentioned ‘hearing’ and ‘talking’ about AI, highlighting its ubiquitousness in daily life.

Similar to last year, when asked how the word made them feel, children gave positive responses, with more than one in ten using the adjective ‘excited’ or ‘exciting’. More than a quarter of six-to-eight-year-olds (29%) chose AI as their word of the year, demonstrating how even very young children are aware of the everyday role AI plays.

Six-seven gives children social currency

We also asked young people to choose their slang word of the year. Almost half (47%) of children chose six-seven as their slang word of the year, followed by aura (24%) and delulu (7%).

Our research revealed that the use of six-seven among children fosters inclusivity and social currency, with almost one in ten mentioning ‘friends’ when asked how they use the term, with more than a quarter (28%) citing ‘fun’ and ‘laugh’ when asked what six-seven meant to them.

While 12% of children admitted six-seven had no meaning, most children highlighted the value of such words, with 72% of children stating it was important to have words they only use with friends.

Andrea Quincey

Director of Early Years and Primary Publishing

“A key theme we see from our Oxford Children’s Word of the Year research is just how attuned children are to current affairs. This year is no different; whether that’s calling for peace in response to current conflicts or highlighting how AI has permeated daily life. Perhaps it’s no surprise that six-seven is voted, overwhelmingly, as their slang word of the year. A word which brings them laughter and joy and connection with friends. We see how important it is for children to have agency over their language away from the grown-up world and share words that adults can’t understand.”

Supporting the National Year of Reading by fostering a love of words

We are calling for schools in the UK to participate in the next Oxford Children’s Word of the Year to further support children’s reading, vocabulary development, and oracy skills. We have developed an activity pack with tips and resources for schools that want to take part, including how ‘word of the year’ conversation sessions can encourage book talk and language development. More details on how schools can get involved can be found here.

To mark the announcement, and to support the National Year of Reading 2026, we are collaborating with the National Literacy Trust on school events across the UK. The author-led events will encourage children to engage with different forms of reading and reflect on the words they read, speak, and learn about.

Jonathan Douglas CBE, Chief Executive of the National Literacy Trust, said: “Language plays a profound role in shaping our society, culture and identity. Understanding how children and young people make sense of the words they encounter in their daily lives, take ownership of them and play with their meaning, demonstrates the power of language for helping us comprehend the world around us and our place in it.

“The National Year of Reading will enable us to give more children and young people new opportunities to experience language in ways that are fun, relevant and help them connect with others. Throughout the year, we will work with Oxford University Press and a number of incredible authors to bring the magic of reading and words to life for children and young people across the UK.”

You can read the full details of our research in the Oxford Children’s Word of the Year 2025 report here.