"Blackout" gathered 41.5% of the "thousands of votes," "reflecting the impact that the failure of the electricity supply had on people's lives, leaving them without access to transport, communications and basic services," said Porto Editora in a statement, without specifying the number of voters.

In this year's edition of the Word of the Year, a new feature was introduced, allowing voters to justify their choice. "This word stood out as a 'historical event' and 'most significant moment of the year,' combining 'uncertainty and distress' with 'life lesson' and 'possibility of disconnecting,'" added the publisher. The top 3 most voted words of 2025 include "immigration," with 22.2% of the votes, and "flotilla," with 8%.

The list of finalist words also included “Agente (IA)” (6,4%), “fogos” (5,5%), “eleições” (5,3%), “perceção” (4,3%), “elevador” (4%), “tarefeiro” (1,9%) e “moderado” (0,9%).

Voting took place between November 3rd and 30th, through the website www.palavradoano.pt.

The list of ten finalist words, "which portray the themes and events that marked collective life throughout 2025," was compiled based on more than 6,500 submissions by users of the Word of the Year website, the most searched words in the Infopédia Portuguese language dictionary, and "the continuous work of observing the Portuguese language in the media and social networks."

Last year, when the 50th anniversary of April 25th was commemorated, the most voted word was "Freedom."

In previous editions, the chosen words were “teacher” (2023), “war” (2022), “vaccine” (2021), “longing” (2020), “domestic violence” (2019), “nurse” (2018), “fires” (2017), “contraption” (2016), “refugee” (2015), “corruption” (2014), “firefighter” (2013), “entreikado” (2012), “austerity” (2011), “vuvuzela” (2010) and “to scrutinize” (2009).