Dictionary.com Has Gone Too Far, Names 6-7 ‘Phrase’ of the Yr

Dictionary.com will not be precisely a controversial web site (until you ask phrase nerds), but it surely has managed to generate a mass previous males yelling at clouds occasion. The location announced its Word of the Year for 2025, and it picked a phrase that’s really two phrases (numbers even) that exist already however have been mixed to create some form of new, nonsensical time period that captures the nihilistic brainrot of a technology: “Six-seven” (siks sev–uhn).

In Dictionary.com’s slight protection, there’s virtually definitely no “phrase” that has seen a bigger spike in utilization than six-seven has. When you’ve got anybody in your life beneath the age of 18, you’ve virtually definitely heard the time period repeated an inexplicable variety of occasions. Dictionary.com claims that six-seven has appeared in digital media six occasions extra often in October 2025 than it did in any month of 2024. So, if Dictionary.com is making an attempt to function a form of phrase time capsule, it’s definitely captured a second.

“Few slang phrases have captured the cultural temper of 2025 fairly like 67,” Steve Johnson, PhD, Director of Lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Studying, stated in a press release. “It’s half inside joke, half social sign and half efficiency. When folks say it, they’re not simply repeating a meme; they’re shouting a sense. It’s one of many first Phrases of the Yr that works as an interjection, a burst of vitality that spreads and connects folks lengthy earlier than anybody agrees on what it really means.”

Dictionary.com calls six-seven a contemporary shibboleth, which is a cool means of contextualizing one thing that frankly makes most individuals’s brows furrow upon listening to it. It additionally notes that it’s nonetheless one thing of an etymological thriller in that nobody can actually agree on an origin (it’s both from a Skrilla tune known as “Doot Doot (6 7)” or a reference to walking meme LaMelo Ball or perhaps each), nor can anybody aggree on a definition (it’s described by Dictionary.com as “purposefully nonsensical, endlessly remixable and all about being in on the absurdity”).

However the determination to roll with six-seven can be type of an affordable trick for the writer. It was just about assured to get consideration due to how divisive and baffling the phrase is. Is it actually the phrase that defines the 12 months? Dictionary.com’s shortlist for different contenders included the AI-related “agentic” in reference to the proliferation of AI brokers, and “clanker,” the manufactured slur for robots. It additionally included “broligarchy,” the time period for the tech bro ruling class that now dictates our lives, and “tariff” as in “These Trump tariffs positive are killing the financial system.”

All of these phrases are more likely to have extra endurance than six-seven, which is able to (god keen) be extra of a pattern than a linguistic staple. However these phrases aren’t going to get you an identical headlines or search engine optimisation bump. So properly performed, Dictionary.com. You win this spherical.