People are up in arms after a popular online dictionary announced its word of the year for 2025 is slang phrase that has been terrorising schools.
Dictionary.com added the term “6-7” to its books recently, explaining that the word “reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how we’ve changed”.
The wordsmith platform added that while it has been embraced by younger generations, namely school kids, “we’re all still trying to figure out exactly what it means”.
Six-seven is a brain rot phrase popular among Gen Alpha, with kids across the world mostly using it to describe something as “average”.
People aren’t really divided when it comes to this announcement, the majority seem to think it’s simply a ridiculous choice.
“We’re doomed as a society,” one X user wrote in reaction to the announcement.
“The word of the year is two numbers, we are so cooked,” a second user said.
“The world is actually done for,” said a third.
Others were enraged by the choice of a number for the word of the year.
“Since when is a number a word? God I hate kids,” one said.
“Well those aren’t words! We’re doomed,” another wrote, echoing the same sentiment.
However, others are getting behind the unserious nature of the choice.
“6-7 is just funny humour that hurts no one. Let people enjoy themselves. It literally offends no one,” one X user shared.
Others are embracing their isolation from the youth of today.
“I still don’t know what the f**k 6-7 is and I refuse to Google it. Do not reply to me with the answer either, I want to die not knowing.”
What does six-seven mean?
Originating from the song by American rapper Skrilla Doot Doot (6 7), which features the sequential numbers as a recurring lyric.
It’s apparently also linked to the American basketball player LaMelo Ball, who stands at 6-foot-7.
It gained further popularity when Taylen Kinney, a 17-year-old basketball player from Atlanta rated a drink as “6, 7” out of 10 during an interview.
From there, it became a preferred slang word for Gen Alpha slang, used when something is “so-so”.
It can also be used to refer to someone tall, or just as a general directionless punchline or chant in the classroom, and there’s even a hand gesture.
While it might annoy parents, the ultimate group on the front lines of this six-seven epidemic is teachers.
They’re reportedly sick of hearing those two numbers repeated as they try their best to teach the next generation.
Some schools have banned it. Others are embracing it.
Some teachers in the US and the UK, where the trend is currently more prolific, have described the situation as a “nightmare”.
“I’m an 8th grade teacher and I am so done hearing it that I just banned it from my classroom,” one wrote on Reddit.
“It was funny at first, but now it continually interrupts my class,” raged another.
How was six-seven chosen as word of the year?
Lexicographers at Dictionary.com analysed data surrounding news headlines, social media trends and search engine results to find the words that have the most impact on conversations both on and offline.
“Few slang terms have captured the cultural mood of 2025 quite like 6-7,” Steve Johnson, Director of Lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning, said.
“It’s part inside joke, part social signal and part performance.
“When people say it, they’re not just repeating a meme; they’re shouting a feeling.
“It’s one of the first Words of the Year that works as an interjection, a burst of energy that spreads and connects people long before anyone agrees on what it actually means.”
