6-7

"Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year Is…"

Each year, Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year and short-listed nominees capture pivotal moments in language and culture. These words serve as a linguistic time capsule, reflecting social trends and global events that defined the year. The Word of the Year isn’t just about popular usage; it reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how we’ve changed over the year. And for these reasons, Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year is 67.

Macquarie Dictionary's WOTY shortlist also included six-seven; Sam Altman is apparently planning to name his next AI model GPT-6-7; and a news search will give you plenty of other relevant stories, from basketball scores  to "6-7 in the Bible".

The best explanation that I've seen for the origin and progress of this phrase comes from the local Philadelphia NPR station — Dillon Dodson, "For those still out of the loop, here is what ‘6-7’ means", WHYY News 11/17/2025:

The youthful phenomenon, in which kids say “6-7” and move their open-palmed hands up and down for no apparent reason, was recently named word of the year by Dictionary.com. Its origins trace to a song by a Philly rapper with gun-referencing lyrics, but the pop culture use of “6-7” is more playful — even becoming the focus of a recent episode of “South Park,” and companies such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Domino’s have offered promotions inspired by the two numbers.

As the saying has gone global, many people still don’t understand it — or that it’s most likely Philadelphia-based.

So what does “6-7” mean? And why has it become so prevalent? Here’s an explainer.

Go on and read the whole thing — which is even more complex and ambiguous than pop-culture etymologies usually are.

Update — Adding to the etymological complexity and ambiguity, Brian in the comments points us to Wikipedia's article "At sixes and sevens", which hasn't yet caught up with Skrilla…