“Frauen-Nati” is Switzerland’s 2025 Swiss German Word of the Year

The Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) has released Switzerland’s Word of the Year 2025. “Frauen-Nati” (the Swiss women’s national team) is the Swiss German word of the year. 

“Frauen-Nati” is Word of the Year 2025

According to the university’s website, a Word of the Year “embod[ies] key social developments that are reflected in Swiss discourses”. This year, ZHAW linguists used a Swiss-AL text database to select the most prominent words that reflect 2025.

Juries in each of Switzerland’s four language regions then decided which of these words would be selected as Words of the Year, choosing one for each of Switzerland's four languages.

In Swiss German, “Frauen-Nati” (women’s national team) was selected following the UEFA Women’s Championship, which was hosted in Switzerland this year. The football tournament led to a “boom” in football clubs that were “inundated with young players whose dream is probably to play for the Frauen-Nati one day,” states the ZHAW press release.

In second place came “Zollhammer” (customs hammer), after US President Donald Trump imposed import tariffs on Switzerland in August. Third place goes to “Chlorhuhn” (chlorinated chicken), which was in the news as the Swiss government debated allowing them to be imported as part of an agreement with the US. 

French, Italian and Romansh Words of the Year 2025

Words of the year were also selected for Switzerland’s other official languages. In French-speaking Switzerland, the word of the year is génocide (genocide), followed by 39% (for the 39% customs duty) and grève (strike).

In Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland, the word of the year is dazi (customs duties), followed by permacrisi (permanent crisis) in second place and riarmo (rearmament) in third.

And for the Romansh-speaking parts of Switzerland, the word of the year is IA (AI – artificial intelligence), followed by ballape da dunnas (women's football) and vita pajabla (affordable living).

You can find a list of previous Words of the Year on the ZHAW website.