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

Dictionary.com is not exactly a controversial website (unless you ask word nerds), but it has managed to generate a mass old men yelling at clouds event. The site announced its Word of the Year for 2025, and it picked a word that is actually two words (numbers even) that already exist but have been combined to create some sort of new, nonsensical term that captures the nihilistic brainrot of a generation: “Six-seven” (siks sev–uhn).

In Dictionary.com’s slight defense, there is almost certainly no “word” that has seen a larger spike in usage than six-seven has. If you have anyone in your life under the age of 18, you’ve almost certainly heard the term repeated an inexplicable number of times. Dictionary.com claims that six-seven has appeared in digital media six times more frequently in October 2025 than it did in any month of 2024. So, if Dictionary.com is trying to serve as a sort of word time capsule, it’s certainly captured a moment.

“Few slang terms have captured the cultural mood of 2025 quite like 67,” Steve Johnson, PhD, Director of Lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning, said in a statement. “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.”

Dictionary.com calls six-seven a modern shibboleth, which is a cool way of contextualizing something that frankly makes most people’s brows furrow upon hearing it. It also notes that it’s still something of an etymological mystery in that no one can really agree on an origin (it’s either from a Skrilla song called “Doot Doot (6 7)” or a reference to walking meme LaMelo Ball or maybe both), nor can anyone aggree on a definition (it’s described by Dictionary.com as “purposefully nonsensical, endlessly remixable and all about being in on the absurdity”).

But the decision to roll with six-seven is also kind of a cheap trick for the publisher. It was pretty much guaranteed to get attention because of how divisive and baffling the word is. Is it really the word that defines the year? Dictionary.com’s shortlist for other contenders included the AI-related “agentic” in reference to the proliferation of AI agents, and “clanker,” the manufactured slur for robots. It also included “broligarchy,” the term for the tech bro ruling class that now dictates our lives, and “tariff” as in “These Trump tariffs sure are killing the economy.”

All of those words are likely to have more staying power than six-seven, which will (god willing) be more of a trend than a linguistic staple. But those terms aren’t going to get you the same headlines or SEO bump. So well played, Dictionary.com. You win this round.