BEIJING, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — As the world’s largest online dictionary by user base, Youdao Dictionary has formally announced "deepseek" as its 2025 Word of the Year. The term led the platform with more than 8,672,940 searches this year, becoming the query millions of users typed into the search bar in a collective response to the technology’s fast-growing influence.
According to Zhang Yi, Head of Youdao Dictionary, the surge in interest around "deepseek" has been nothing short of extraordinary, showing relatively stable activity early in the year before accelerating sharply after February, with nearly every technological breakthrough catalyzing a new wave of searches.
"Interest in ‘deepseek’ has also fueled increased engagement with related technical terminology, and we’re seeing clear shifts in how users conduct lookups," noted Zhang Yi. "After searching the term itself, users are exploring broader concepts around large AI models and AI-driven capabilities, further deepening their learning journey."
The shift closely aligns with Youdao Dictionary’s ongoing platform enhancements. Over the past year, the product team has strengthened the service’s AI capabilities, introducing targeted refinements across homepage interaction flows and the core lookup experience. These improvements provide users researching emerging technical terminology, such as "deepseek", with faster, more accurate, and more context-aware results, better supporting the evolving needs of today’s digital learners.
From university students and working professionals to AI enthusiasts and everyday internet users with little technical background, a growing number of people are turning to Youdao Dictionary to learn about the homegrown Chinese AI brand. On social media platforms in China, "deepseek" has even earned the nickname D laoshi, ("Teacher D") a playful reference to the model’s strong functional performance, whether it’s "asking D laoshi to draft a piece of copy," "having D laoshi refine a weekly report," or "D laoshi surprising me again with what it can do."
Within Youdao Dictionary, the Chinese interpretation of the term, shendu qiusuo (deep exploration), has resonated strongly with users. It accurately illustrates the sustained research and innovation occurring across China’s AI industry in 2025. The sharp rise in searches not only underscores the extraordinary pace at which new technologies are spreading but also highlights the public’s growing willingness to understand new technologies and adapt to rapid technological change.
As the world’s most widely used online dictionary, Youdao has released its annual list of trending words since 2011. These rankings are based on the lookup behaviors of more than one billion users globally, providing a robust and representative dataset. From "hold" in 2011 and "duang" in 2015 to "vlog" in 2019 and "crush" in 2023, each selected term has revealed the social atmosphere of its respective year.
In 2024, Youdao Dictionary named "damn" as its Word of the Year, a term widely used by Gen Z to express intense emotions such as excitement and surprise. One year later, the Word of the Year has shifted from emotional expression to technological exploration, reflecting the pace of transformation shaping today’s digital environment.
Xie Xiaoqing, a researcher at Beijing Language and Culture University, commented: "As one of the most widely adopted language-learning tools in China, Youdao Dictionary provides meaningful visibility into social trends through the shifts captured in its annual words. In 2025, the spike in AI-related searches on the platform is far from accidental; it reflects the public’s strong awareness of China’s AI advancements. People are embracing, utilizing, and even driving new technologies in their own ways. This is precisely the value of a Word of the Year: it captures the public sentiment and societal rhythm throughout the year."