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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lucy Knight

Charli xcx fans rejoice: ‘Brat’ chosen as Collins word of the year

The inspiration for a slime-green summer … album artwork for Charli xcx’s Brat.
The inspiration for a slime-green summer … album artwork for Charli xcx’s Brat. Photograph: AP

Most have us have long moved on from “brat summer”, when, sparked by Charli xcx’s album of the same name, wearing slime green and embracing your inner messiness was on trend. But the lexicographers at Collins dictionary are still firmly in their brat era, naming it their 2024 word of the year.

Though Collins already defined “brat” as “someone, especially a child”, who “behaves badly or annoys you”, it has been selected as word of the year because of its new definition: “characterised by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude”.

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