What ‘67’ As Dictionary.com 2025 Word Of The Year Says About Society

Dictionary.com may have had 6-7 candidates for its 2025 Word of the Year, but in the end, there was really only one clear choice. In fact, by September, “67”—also spelled “6-7” or “six-seven”—became so clearly defined as the winner that Dictionary.com was willing to call the race early this year. That’s one month early as in October 29, 2025, compared to the November 25, 2024, announcement for the 2024 Word of the Year “demure.” And there may be two health-related reasons why 67 has gone so viral this year.

“67 still hasn’t even peaked in its usage yet,” Steve Johnson, director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning, told me. “It is being used four times more than we saw for ‘kiss cam’ at the height of the Coldplay incident. So it really is just a phenomenon that’s grown.” If you are wondering whether “kiss cam” was on their list— not their list of the best things in life, but the shortlist of the Dictionary.com 2025 Word of the Year finalists—it wasn’t. The six other finalists were “agentic”, “aura farming”, “gen Z stare”, “overtourism”, “tariff”, and “tradwife.” But before you stare too long at these possibilities, none of these had the aura that “67” did. Or still does.

What Does ‘67’ Mean

So what the bleep does “67” mean? And note that it is “six-seven” and not “sixty-seven” or “six-foot-seven” like the height of NBA player LaMelo Ball. Well, Dictionary.com calls it “a viral, ambiguous slang term” and “largely nonsensical” with “murky and shifting usage.” Well, that’s about as clear as Red-eye gravy or some kind of fruticake sauce. There are claims that “it means ‘so-so,’ or ‘maybe this, maybe that,’ especially when paired with a hand gesture where both palms face up and move alternately up and down.”

You may see people responding to questions with “67” as in:

• How are you today? 67.
• What’s 120 minus 53?” 67, which, by the way, is correct.
• How many fruitcakes would you like? 67, which, by the way, would be wrong.
• If you could have any superpower, what would it be? 67.
• If a quokka could speak English, what would that animal say? 67

You may also see people react and laugh hysterically whenever something like “67” comes up anywhere. For example, when it was clear that the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays would go six to seven games, quite a few people were pointing that out on social media. But that’s not because ‘67’ has a clear ha-ha meaning las something like ‘69’ might:

Where Did ‘67’ Originate

The exact origins of 67 are a bit murky as well. The leading thought is that it originally came from that “Doot Doot (6 7)” song where Skrilla repeats “six-seven” like over and over again. There certainly have been clear viral moments that have further popularized its use. One example is the so-called “67 Kid,” a boy who appeared in the following YouTube video shouting “67” at a youth basketball game:

NBA and NFL players, both present and former ones, have done their part to propagate it. But even though members of other generation have used 67, like GenXer Shaquille O’Neal, it’s become most entrenched as Gen Alpha slang.

“It was like around March when the ‘67’ kid thing was posted and when there was a large blip in usage of term,” recalled Johnson. “We felt that was actually going to be the peak. It was kind of rising and falling until about August. Then once people returned to school, that’s when it kind of took off. I remember in September, when I got a message from my friend who’s a middle school teacher, and she was just like, ‘My kids are saying 67 all the time.’”

Is ‘67’ An Example Of ‘Brainrot’?

Now, some have dubbed “67” as an example of “brainrot” slang. “Brainrot,” which incidentally was the Oxford Word of the Year for 2024, is defined by Oxford as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.” Therefore, the thought is—or perhaps the lack of thought is—that a nonsensical term like “67” is the result of overconsumption of social media and other online material.

If you haven’t figured it out yet—due to brainrot perhaps—brainrot is not a great thing. Typically, nothing with “rot” in it is good. For example, being told you look like rot on a date would not be a good sign. Neither is being told that your mental or intellectual state is deteriorating. The concern is that brainrot can lead to a variety of mental, emotional and physical issues, ranging from reduced attention span to cognitive decline to anxiety and depression to social and relationship problems.

‘67’ May Represent The Desire For Connection

Johnson acknowledged that the whole ‘67’ thing could be another example of brainrot but felt that an alternative explanation may be at play. It could represent the growing desire for connection. “It can be about wanting to have shared laughter and collective goals,” Johnson explained. “It shows that even in the most polarized times that we’re living in, that you can have something that’s just fun and frivolous and lighthearted, where you’re able to kind of connect to others and show belonging.”

Johnson may be on to something here. I have written on multiple occasions in Forbes—in 2018, 2023 and 2024, for example—about how loneliness and other measures of social disconnection have been increasing at an alarming rate since the 1980s. It may seem easy to blame some of the social isolation that Americans have been experiencing on what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 like many politicians have. But listening to politicians can be like listening to a hot dog vendor for diet advice. The pandemic may have uncovered and put a magnifying lens on the social disconnection that so many had already been feeling. But it’s already been five years since 2020 so you can’t keep blaming the pandemic on things.

If the whole ‘67’ is indeed a sign that people are looking to feel more connected with one another, it wouldn’t be a great idea to simply rely on future memes and catchphrases. It’s not as if repeating other numbers—like what about ‘69’ ha, ha, ha—will fix the underlying problems in our society that are leading to loneliness and isolation. You never want to keep sticking bandaids on a problem because that problem will just keep growing and growing until it explodes and cause even more damage. In other words, it may seem like right now that our society has got at least 67 or maybe even 99 problems and simply finding more bandaids ain’t one.