Word nerds rejoice, as Dictionary.com has made it official—67 is their Word of the Year for 2025! The unorthodox shorthand, which gets pronounced as “six-seven,” is all the rage with Gen Z and millennials. It’s a great example of the intersection of cultural importance and the fluidity of language.
The story behind “67” is still cooking—the initial conception is a bit blurry—but in our minds its implications and meanings have begun to crystallize. This can help communicate moments of uncertainty or tension. It’s a bit like calling everything “meh,” “whatever” or “kinda sorta like this, kinda sorta like that. This multifaceted nature contributes to the term’s allure, as it resonates with the unique experiences of today’s youth.
For anyone not adept on the 67 phenomenon, it’s an excellent example of how quickly new terms can enter the international conversation. As a result, it has received enormous exposure in popular culture. Importantly, Skrilla’s 2024 hit “Doot Doot” and NBA superstar LaMelo Ball, who is 6’7”, both illustrate this truth. Earlier this year, a Wilmington, Delaware boy who came to be known as “The 67 Kid” went viral for deploying the term during a youth basketball game. This opportunity boosted the term into the national spotlight.
As 2023 wore on, teachers and moms and dads started to see a marked increase in quantity of time kids and teens were spending on it. The term’s rapid ascent shows how quickly language is changing in today’s world, especially among younger people.
“67 shows the speed at which a new word can rocket around the world as a rising generation enters the global conversation,” – Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com’s annual Word of the Year selection acts as a linguistic time capsule, reflecting social trends and global events that have defined the year. Other strong contenders on this year’s shortlist included “agnetic,” “aura farming,” “Gen Z stare,” “overtourism,” “tariff,” and “tradwife.”
“67 deeply resonated with people, it was tired of being ignored.”—Steve Johnson, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist, expert on social movements. He explained that it is in fact a new language in itself, a new form of expression.
“It’s part inside joke, part social signal and part performance,” – Steve Johnson, Ph.D.
Johnson stressed that when folks say “67,” they’re not just quoting a meme. In reality, they’re saying something much more profound.
“When people say it, they’re not just repeating a meme; they’re shouting a feeling.” – Steve Johnson, Ph.D.
