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Topics: Social Media, TikTok, World News, Weird
Liv Bridge
The Word of the Year for 2025 has been revealed - and has left everyone scratching their heads.
It's that time of year again when Dictionary.com drops its hotly anticipated, if not a little weird, 'Word of the Year' (WOTY).
The site started the quirky competition back in 2010 based on search trends online throughout the year and the news events that spark them.
Since 'change' kicked it off 15 years ago, we've had fun terms like 'tergiversate', 'bluster', and 'privacy', though there was a marked shift as of 2016 to more dystopian word choices, like 'xenophobia', 'misinformation' (2018), 'existential' (2019) and 'pandemic' in none other than 2020.
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It's also celebrated 'demure' as its WOTY in 2024, a direct consequence of TikTok terminology seeping into our every day lives (lest we forget the viral phrase, 'very demure, very mindful').
In 2022, Dictionary.com unveiled 'woman' as its word of the year, a nod to rising tensions and heated debates over the definition, particularly driven as public discourse turned to transgender identity and rights.
However, at least all of these were actual words - unlike 2025's winner.
Dictionary.com has named 6,7 (pronounced six-seven) as its Word of the Year for 2025 which children might be particularly excited about - or six-seven.
Lexicographers have diligently analyzed data from headlines, social media trends and search engine results to identify the words that make an impact on how we converse, online and in real-life before settling on the phase.
"Searches for 67 experienced a dramatic rise beginning in the summer of 2025. Since June, those searches have increased more than sixfold, and so far the surge shows no signs of stopping," Dictionary.com said in its announcement.
"Most other two-digit numbers had no meaningful trend over that period, implying that there is something special about 67."
Indeed, the phrase exploded this year across TikTok, causing teachers to even ban its usage in classrooms.
The trend’s origin can be traced to hip-hop artist Skrilla, who dropped the track 'Doot Doot' in December 2024.
In it, he raps: "6-7, I just bipped right on the highway (bip, bip)."
Yet what's even more baffling is the lack of definition for it, with 6,7 standing as a typical example of Gen Z and Gen Alpha humor - and that is being utterly nonsensical to adults.
Despite its widespread use, most of us have no idea what it actually means... and that’s actually kind of the point of it.
Even Dictionary.com has struggled to give it a proper definition, confessing its 'complicated' to pin down.
"It’s meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical. In other words, it has all the hallmarks of brainrot. It’s the logical endpoint of being perpetually online, scrolling endlessly, consuming content fed to users by algorithms trained by other algorithms," it said.
Dozens have since taken to X to slam the decision, stating the news is a sign that 'our brains are shrinking'.
Many pointed out how it sounds to crown a number as 'word of the year', as one said it's 'the most stupid thing I've ever seen'.
"I still don’t know what the f*** 6,7 is and I refuse to Google it," said another. "Do not reply to me with the answer either, I want to die not knowing."
"Just burn the dictionary now," someone else joked.
If that's not harrowing enough, the dynamite emoji (also not a word), was a hot contender this year, though hilariously so was Kiss cam (following the Coldplay 'affair' scandal).