From ‘Broligarchy’ to ‘Henry’: 2025 Language List Tackles Power, Money, and Class

The 2025 Collins Dictionary Word of the Year list is a sharp reflection of our anxieties about new power structures and economic instability. While “vibe coding” was the tech-focused winner, terms like “broligarchy” and “Henry” reveal a deep preoccupation with class and wealth.
“Broligarchy,” a portmanteau of “bro” and “oligarchy,” has been added to the lexicon as a way to describe the powerful, male-dominated elite of the tech industry. Its usage surged after tech leaders’ visible political engagements, showing a growing public tendency to view them as a new, powerful ruling class.
On the other end of the spectrum is “Henry,” an acronym for “high earner, not rich yet.” This term gives a name to the professionally successful but financially frustrated class of workers who, despite high salaries, feel locked out of true wealth by debt and a high cost of living.
These two words create a linguistic map of our new class structure. At the top sits the “broligarchy,” perceived as holding all the power and wealth. Below them are the “Henrys,” the high-achieving workforce that serves this new economy but feels unable to get ahead.
This economic and social tension is a key story of 2025. The new vocabulary captured by Collins’ 24-billion-word corpus shows we are actively developing language to understand and critique these emerging divides in power and money.