Cambridge’s 2025 Word: Parasocial. Your idols still don’t know you

“Parasocial” is Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2025

BINI‘s FLAMES drops on Nov. 20. You know this better than anyone else, of course. In fact, you—and you alone—already called the release date of their third studio album back when “Cherry on Top” dropped on July 11, 2024, at 8 PM, Philippine Standard Time.

You also happen to know Aiah, Colet, Maloi, Gwen, Stacey, Mikha, Jhoanna, and Sheena’s sun/moon/rising signs, MBTIs, exact heights in millimeters, and favorite  electric fan settings.

Someone dares question your BINI expertise? You casually mention the second name of the cousin of their great-grandmother’s best friend. It’s not flexing for flexing’s sake. You’re not unhinged. Just extremely, painstakingly thorough. You are meticulous, just as an original blogger should be.

Reality check: You are not alone. In a country that is constantly online and keeps up with entertainment news, you are just one of many fans who feel a special connection to a celebrity who does not even know you exist. There’s actually a word for that: parasocial. It’s an adjective that means “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.”

Parasocial energy online

In fact, parasocial is Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2025. Lending credence? Formalization? Reinforcement? Pick your poison. Either way, they’ve officially acknowledged what you’ve been doing for a while now.

And this parasocial energy isn’t just reserved for BINI either.

See, Kathryn Bernardo and James Reid are doing “Someone Someday,” their first-ever teleserye together. KathNiel and JaDine may be over, but they’re your teenage superheroes: posters, notebooks, and Wattpad entries. You’re waiting with bated breath in this surreal crossover.

Ditto Ahtisa Manalo, your Miss Universe 2025 in waiting. You’ve followed her since her Reyna ng Aliwan days. You study every shoot, every Q&A, and every pasarela as if you are personally preparing her for the coronation night. While you’re at it, you tell fellow commenters, “Sa likod po ang pila.”

Ditto Aljur Abrenica. Sure, he was StarStruck Season 4’s “Ultimate Hunk,” but you’re among the elite who know the deep lore: He hails from a family of musicians. You even own several copies of Aljur (2010) and Mahal Pa Rin Kita (2014), fully aware that the mounting scratches come from your heavy rotation.

Here’s to your parasocial relationships. Or situationships? For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to honor them, all the days of your life: truly, madly, deeply one-sided.

 

 

It’s a connection someone feels between themselves and a famous person.

 

 

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