{"id":252002,"date":"2025-10-31T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T00:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/252002\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T00:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T00:08:08","slug":"dictionary-com-reveals-6-7-as-word-of-the-year-capturing-the-chaos-of-2025-internet-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/252002\/","title":{"rendered":"Dictionary.com reveals 6-7 as Word of the Year, capturing the chaos of 2025 internet culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year, Dictionary.com<\/a>\u2019s Word of the Year acts as a linguistic time capsule, capturing the slang, memes, and cultural shifts that defined the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

For 2025, the honour goes to something that isn\u2019t even a word: 6-7.<\/p>\n

Yes, 6-7 \u2014 two innocent numbers that somehow became a generational divide, a TikTok obsession, and now, the year\u2019s most talked-about expression. Parents are baffled, Gen Alpha is smug, and linguists are exasperated.<\/p>\n

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Why 6-7?<\/p>\n

To select the Word of the Year, Dictionary.com\u2019s lexicographers analysed social media trends, headlines, and search data.<\/p>\n

Searches for 6-7 exploded mid-2025, increasing sixfold by June. Every other number stayed flat, confirming there was something special, or at least spectacularly strange, about 67.<\/p>\n

The term first appeared in rapper Skrilla\u2019s viral track \u201cDoot Doot (6-7)\u201d before flooding TikTok.<\/p>\n

Clips featuring basketball players chanting \u201csix-seven\u201d and one child known as the 67 Kid cemented it as the year\u2019s biggest linguistic meme. Teachers even began swapping tips on how to get students to stop saying it.<\/p>\n

It can appear as \u201c6 7,\u201d \u201csix-seven,\u201d or \u201c6-7,\u201d but whatever you do, never say \u201csixty-seven.\u201d That\u2019s the quickest way to expose yourself as an out-of-touch adult.<\/p>\n

What does it mean?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the fun part: no one knows.<\/p>\n

Some say it means \u201cso-so\u201d or \u201cmaybe,\u201d often paired with its trademark hand gesture, palms up, alternating like a human scale. Others treat it as a universal reply, a playful way to frustrate authority figures.<\/p>\n

Ask a teenager how school was and you\u2019ll likely hear: \u201c6-7.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nonsense, but that\u2019s precisely why it resonates. It\u2019s the perfect emblem of an internet era defined by irony, in-jokes, and infinite scrolling. As Dictionary.com puts it, 6-7 \u201cshows the speed at which a new word can rocket around the world as a rising generation enters the global conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other words that defined 2025<\/p>\n

While 6-7 took the crown, several other contenders captured the year\u2019s digital and political mood:<\/p>\n

Agentic: Once an academic term for human agency, now used for AI that acts autonomously, reflecting fears about self-directed technology.Aura farming: The act of curating one\u2019s energy or vibe online, popularised by the viral \u201cboat kid\u201d meme.Broligarchy: A mix of bro and oligarchy, describing the tech-bro elite orbiting power in 2025.Clanker: A snarky label for AI systems or chatbots, repurposed from sci-fi slang.Dynamite emoji: Rebranded by fans as \u201cT\u2019n\u2019T,\u201d shorthand for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.Gen Z stare: The blank, unreadable look that became a meme and a cultural talking point.Overtourism: The resurgence of travel crowds is straining destinations like Venice and Mount Fuji.Tradwife: A revived term for the \u201ctraditional wife\u201d aesthetic, sparking fresh debate about gender and domesticity.<\/p>\n

The language of now<\/p>\n

Dictionary.com says its Word of the Year isn\u2019t about popularity, it\u2019s about reflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cLanguage doesn\u2019t just describe culture, it drives it,\u201d the site\u2019s editors said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we choose a Word of the Year, we\u2019re capturing how people express who they are and what matters to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in 2025, that expression is clear \u2014 even if it makes no sense at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every year, Dictionary.com\u2019s Word of the Year acts as a linguistic time capsule, capturing the slang, memes, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2331,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-252002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}