‘67,’ Dictionary.com’s 2025 word of the year, has no precise meaning, and that’s the appeal
“The Word of the Year isn’t just about popular usage; it reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how we’ve changed over the year. And for these reasons, Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year is 67,” the site said.
Conversations and search engine queries around 67 (pronounced “six-seven”) skyrocketed this year, according to Dictionary.com, especially in the past several months.
Since June, searches for 67 “have increased more than sixfold, and so far the surge shows no signs of stopping,” the site said.
The beauty of 67? It can be used as a nonsensical response to many questions — an effective way to frustrate one’s elders, Dictionary.com said.
Here’s an example:
“Hey kiddo, how was school today?” a parent might ask.
“67!,” a cheeky third grader responds. What that means, no one really knows!
The word can also be used to dodge giving a real answer to a question, because some interpret 67 to mean “maybe this, maybe that,” according to Dictionary.com. Others have said it means “so-so,” and kids often accompany the phrase with hand gesture implying they are weighing two options.
The origin of 67 is thought to be a song called “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla, Dictionary.com said. From there, the phrase went viral on TikTok videos featuring kids playing basketball.
“Within weeks, teachers were trading tips online about how to get their students to stop saying 67 all day long,” Dictionary.com said.
Students at one Michigan middle school were so fixated on 67 this fall that their choir teacher instructed them to write a song about it. Their rendition went viral and was featured on “The Today Show” this month.
“Some teachers get frustrated by slang,” choir teacher Taryn Gontjes told TODAY.com. “That’s not a battle I want to fight, so I might as well use it to my advantage. Let’s just embrace it and make it funny.”
The word has an online entry on Merriam Webster, although it’s unknown if it will appear in physical copies of the publisher’s new edition of its Collegiate Dictionary set to come out in November.
“The bottom line is, the term ‘six seven’ is nonsensical — which is sort of the point. As one tween TikToker put it under another video, ‘I think the point is that it makes no sense,’” the online Merriam Webster entry says.
Dictionary.com’s word of 2024 was “demure,” which saw a “meteoric” rise in response to TikTok videos of a woman’s monologue, which popularized the phrase “very demure, very mindful.” In prior years, the words “woman,” “allyship,” and “pandemic” were the words of the year.
The shortlist for the site’s 2025 word of the year included “Gen Z stare,” “kiss cam,” “tariff,” and “tradwife.”
Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto.
