Dictionary.comâs word of the year: Is it even a word?
Dictionary.com’s word of the year isn’t even really a word. It’s a viral term that kids and teenagers can’t stop repeating and laughing about.
Go ahead and roll your eyes. Shrug your shoulders. Or maybe just juggle your hands in the air.
Dictionary.comâs word of the year isnât even really a word. Itâs the viral term â6-7â that kids and teenagers canât stop repeating and laughing about and parents and teachers canât make any sense of.
The word â if you can call it that â exploded in popularity over past two months. Itâs more of an inside joke with an unclear meaning, driven by social media.
Dictionary.com says its annual selection is a linguistic time capsule reflecting social trends and events. But the site admitted it too is a bit confused by â6-7â.
âDonât worry, because weâre all still trying to figure out exactly what it means,â the site said in its announcement this week.
So how did 6-7 become a thing?
It all seems to trace back to rapper Skrillaâs song from 2024 called âDoot Doot (6-7).â
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That song started appearing in TikTok videos with basketball players, including the NBAâs LaMelo Ball who stands 6-foot-7.
Then a boy, now known as âThe 6-7 Kid,â shouted the ubiquitous phrase while another kid next to him juggled his hands in a video that went viral this year.
Thatâs all it took.
And what does 6-7 mean? The real answer is, no one knows.
And sometimes it depends on whoâs on the receiving end of â6-7â.
Even how to write â6-7â is up for debate â is it â6 7â or âsix seven?â
According to Dictionary.com, the phrase could mean âso-so,â or âmaybe this, maybe thatâ when combined with the juggling hands gesture.
Merriam-Webster calls it a âa nonsensical expression used especially by teens and tweens.â
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Some simply use it to frustrate adults when being questioned.
âItâs meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical. In other words, it has all the hallmarks of brainrot,â Dictionary.com said.
âStill, it remains meaningful to the people who use it because of the connection it fosters.â
How has the rest of the world responded?
Parents and teachers have created their own videos trying to explain the sensation.
Some offer tips on how to stop their kids from repeating it all day long. Others suggest embracing it â even making â6-7â Halloween costumes â so it will become uncool.
Teachers have banned it. Influencers and child psychologists have tried to make sense of it.
Itâs even spilled over into the NFL as a way to celebrate big plays.
Why is it word of the year?
Dictionary.com says it looks for words that influence how we talk with each other and communicate online.
The site scoured search engines, headlines and social media trends in making its choice. Online searches for â6-7â took off dramatically over the summer, it said, and havenât slowed, growing by six times since June.
âThe Word of the Year isnât just about popular usage; it reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how weâve changed over the year,â the site said.
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