‘67’ became Word of the Year for 2025. What does it mean?

‘67’ (said six-seven) named 2025 Word of the Year as brainrot slang capturing Gen Alpha’s playful and absurd language

The online dictionary Dictionary.com has selected ‘67’ (pronounced six-seven, never sixty-seven) as its official Word of the Year for 2025, signalling a striking shift in how younger generations are shaping language. Although ‘67’ is simply a number, it has exploded as slang on social media, particularly with Gen Alpha, and its selection marks one of the first times a non-word filled the top spot.

The term is described by Dictionary.com as part of what linguists call brainrot slang, phrases that are ‘purposefully nonsensical and playfully absurd’ yet deeply connected to digital culture. The exact meaning of ‘67’ remains fluid. Some users interpret it loosely as ‘so-so’ or ‘maybe this, maybe that,’ often paired with a gesture in which both palms are held up and moved alternately.

Origins of the term trace back to the 2024 drill track Doot Doot (6 7) by Skrilla and viral basketball clips featuring LaMelo Ball, who is 6 ft 7 in tall. Social media videos showing the chant spread rapidly in 2025, particularly on TikTok and Instagram. Teachers and parents began noticing students shouting ‘six-seven’ in classrooms, often without any clear reason.

What makes this choice noteworthy is that ‘67’ defies traditional criteria for Words of the Year. It has no fixed definition, no historical weight, and no clear semantic referent, yet it achieved meme-level ubiquity. Dictionary.com explained that its inclusion reflects the power of digital culture to elevate the absurd and unstructured into mainstream language.

Critics among older generations reacted with bemusement and frustration. Many questioned how a number with no clear meaning could earn such recognition, dubbing it emblematic of a perceived collapse in linguistic seriousness. Meanwhile younger users embraced it as a badge of belonging: to use ‘six-seven’ is to signal participation in Gen Alpha’s in-group humour.

In the broader view, the selection of ‘67’ underscores how youth culture, algorithms and viral trends are reshaping language at unprecedented speed. It suggests that meaning matters less than shared experience, and that language can evolve not through definition but through feeling and performance. The term may seem meaningless, but perhaps that is precisely why it resonates.