Gen Alpha slang: what the words mean, plus brainrot and 6-7

Some Gen Alpha slang means nothing at all, and that is the point. Dictionary.com calls 6-7, its Word of the Year for 2025, impossible to define. The Cambridge Dictionary says skibidi can be used with no real meaning. When Oxford University Press surveyed almost 5,000 children in the UK, 72% said it mattered to have words they only use with friends.

This page is for a parent, a teacher or a manager who keeps hearing these words and would like to know what they are hearing. Each entry gives the word, what it means, a sentence you might really hear, and where it came from when a dictionary or a reporter could say.

There are 30 words below: 20 Gen Alpha and 10 brainrot. Every one is safe to show a class of twelve-year-olds or a room of colleagues. After the lists come the story of 6-7, why this slang moves so fast, what we left out, and how to run a Gen Alpha quiz with a room. The older words, from rizz to no cap, are on the Gen Z slang page.

Gen Alpha slang list, A to Z

Gen Alpha is the generation after Gen Z, born between 2010 and 2024 by the definition People uses. Plenty of this comes from streaming and gaming, and all of it is safe for a classroom or an office.

• 6-7: No fixed meaning, it's mostly a running joke. "How was school?" "6-7." Also written 67, and Dictionary.com's Word of the Year for 2025. Its story has its own section below.
• algospeak: Words changed to get past an app's filters. "They wrote 'panini' for pandemic. That's algospeak." Dictionary.com finds it on social media by 2016. Some of it stands in for serious subjects, so ask if a child uses a word you do not recognize.
• aura: Someone's cool factor. "He walked in late and nobody minded. That's aura." Florida Today compares it to "star quality". The Cambridge Dictionary lists a personality and style that people admire.
• aura farming: Doing something on purpose to look effortlessly cool. "He's leaning on the locker, staring into the distance. Aura farming." The "farming" comes from gaming, and the phrase made Oxford's shortlist for 2025.
• aura points: A joke score for how cool someone is. "She tripped on stage and lost a hundred aura points." The Columbus Dispatch calls it a lighthearted way of measuring coolness, based on a TikTok trend.
• broski: Bro, for anyone. "Chill, broski, we have time." Parade says any gender can use it.
• chat: A way to address a group, like "you guys". "Chat, did he really just give us homework?" Florida Today says it comes from streamers talking to the chat section of a livestream.
• cooked: In serious trouble. "I forgot the test was today. I'm cooked." The Cambridge Dictionary adds "unlikely to be able to return to a successful or strong position".
• crash out: To lose control and act rashly. "Don't crash out over one bad grade." Dictionary.com says it began in African American Vernacular English. It can be a joke or a real sign of distress, so it is worth asking which.
• forty-one: Another number that means almost nothing, said for fun. "What did you get on the test?" "Forty-one." Written 41. Dictionary.com says it spread after 6-7 got too familiar, which pushed teens to a newer number.
• L: A loss. "We missed the bus. Big L." Parade says Gen Alpha still uses it for something negative or a loss, and that it is not a new term.
• locked in: Fully focused. "Don't talk to her, she's locked in on this essay." Dictionary.com has "exhibiting total concentration on the task in hand", and marks it British and informal.
• lowkenuinely: Honestly, said in a relaxed way. "Lowkenuinely, that was the best lunch all week." Dictionary.com calls it a blend of low-key and genuinely, first seen on TikTok in November 2025.
• pookie: An affectionate nickname. "Come on, pookie, we'll be late." Newsweek calls it a term of endearment for a close friend or a loved one.
• six-sendy: 6-7 crossed with getting sendy, which means going all out. "He jumped in the lake in November. Six-sendy." Dictionary.com traces "sendy" to the action-sports phrase "send it".
• stand on business: To do what you said you would do. "You said you'd clean it up, so stand on business." Florida Today defines it as acting in line with what you said you value.
• tuff: Cool or impressive. "That new bike is tuff." AirDroid's slang guide for parents calls it a stylized spelling of tough for something that looks cool or impressive, and Dictionary.com lists the spelling as slang.
• twin: A very close friend. "We've been friends since first grade. That's my twin." Parade is clear that it has nothing to do with real twins.
• W: A win. "You got front-row seats? Massive W." Black America Web says the W comes from internet slang for a win.
• yap: To talk a lot, often about nothing. "Sorry, I've been yapping for ten minutes." The Cambridge Dictionary has "to talk continuously", and marks "yapping" as disapproving or informal.

Brainrot words and what brain rot means

Brain rot is a real phrase with a long history. Oxford defines it as the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially from too much trivial or unchallenging material, now mostly online. "Supposed" is Oxford's word. Nobody's brain is literally rotting.

Oxford made it Word of the Year for 2024, after a public vote of more than 37,000 people and a rise in use of 230% in a year. It is far older than the internet. Oxford's first recorded use is in Henry David Thoreau's Walden, in 1854. Thoreau was complaining that society devalued complex ideas, so people have worried about this for a long time.

The phrase now does two jobs. The Cambridge Dictionary lists the loss of clear thinking and also silly content with no meaning. That second sense is what "brainrot words" usually means: words that spread by repetition and barely mean anything. You will see it written as one word or two. All of these are safe for a classroom or an office.

• brain rot: What too much low-quality content is said to do to your mind. "Six hours of videos and I can't spell my own name. Total brain rot." The Cambridge Dictionary also uses it for the content itself.
• chronically online: Spending so much time online that it shows. "You knew that meme before it was posted? Chronically online." Florida Today adds "for better or for worse".
• doomscrolling: Reading bad news on your phone for far too long. "I should be asleep, but I've been doomscrolling since midnight." The Cambridge Dictionary defines it the same way.
• fanum tax: Taking some of a friend's food without asking. "You ate half my fries? That's the fanum tax." The Columbus Dispatch says it comes from the online creator Fanum, known for jokingly taking other people's food.
• Ohio: Weird or cringe. "Why is there a goose in the cafeteria? So Ohio." People says it grew from the idea that odd things happen in the state, and teenagers in Ohio use it too. It is a joke about a meme, and it says nothing about anyone who lives there.
• rage bait: Content made to make you angry, for the clicks. "Ignore that post about pineapple on pizza. It's rage bait." Oxford's Word of the Year for 2025.
• sigma: Cool, or the best, the way kids toss it around. "You fixed the projector? So sigma." The Columbus Dispatch says it can just mean good or best. It comes from "sigma male", which Dictionary.com places in masculinist subcultures, so ask if a child seems to mean that.
• skibidi: Cool, bad or nothing at all, depending on who is talking. "What the skibidi is that?" The Cambridge Dictionary agrees it can be used with no real meaning. The AP credits the creator of the animated series Skibidi Toilet, but Dictionary.com finds it spreading the year before, from a song on a viral TikTok.
• slop: Low-quality content, especially when AI made it. "My feed is nothing but AI slop today." The Cambridge Dictionary lists this sense, and it was Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2025.
• what the sigma: What on earth, or sometimes nothing at all. "What the sigma is in this sandwich?" Parade says that, much like skibidi, it has no real meaning.

If you are worried, FOX 9 reports that the main concern among experts is the amount of time children spend scrolling, rather than the content itself. So the useful question at home is how long, more than which video.

This list covers words, so it leaves out named meme characters, including the AI-made cast known as Italian brainrot. Those are characters rather than vocabulary, and AFP reports that some of the videos carry offensive messages that go over young viewers' heads.

What 6-7 means, and the moments that made it

6-7 is a number kids shout. You say it "six-seven", never "sixty-seven", usually with both palms up, moving up and down in turn. Dictionary.com saw searches for it climb from June 2025.

It has no fixed meaning, and nobody is hiding one from you. Some people use it for so-so. Mostly it is a reply to anything: a question, a math answer, or a page number that happens to fit. Dictionary.com says that a perfectly timed one signals you are part of an in-group, and that is close to the whole job.

Researchers who study children's culture think that is why it worked. Rebekah Willett, Amanda Levido and Hyeon-Seon Jeong wrote in The Conversation that the meaninglessness of 6-7 made it easy to create a sense of inclusion and exclusion. They add that children have used secret languages such as back slang since before World War I. The number is new, and the game is very old.

It was their word of the year too. In Oxford's survey of UK children aged 6 to 14, 47% chose six-seven as their slang word of the year, ahead of aura at 24%. Only 12% admitted it had no meaning, and 28% cited fun or a laugh.

These are the moments that made it, and what each source actually reports.

• The song, winter 2024 to 2025. Dictionary.com says the term is thought to have originated in "Doot Doot (6 7)", a drill song by the rapper Skrilla. Drill lyrics are not for a classroom, so do not play it to one.
• LaMelo Ball, 2025. Basketball clips set to the song pulled in the Charlotte Hornets star, listed at 6 foot 7. Bleacher Report says fans used it for hype moments and, more often, mundane ones.
• The classroom, fall 2025. Dictionary.com reports teachers trading tips on how to make it stop. One fourth grade teacher had students write "I will not say '6-7' in class", six times for a first offense and seven for a second. An Indiana sheriff's office posted a joke video of officers handing out "tickets" at a school.
• South Park, October 2025. The adult cartoon opened a season with its school enveloped in the trend, Variety reported. Comments on the promo split between delight and people asking what 6-7 even was.
• Word of the Year, October 2025. Dictionary.com picked it after searches rose more than sixfold from June. Its verdict: meaningless, ubiquitous and nonsensical.
• The prime minister, November 2025. On a school visit, Keir Starmer made the gesture when pupils reached pages 6 and 7. The headteacher told him it was banned there, and he apologized: "I didn't start it, Miss."
• The brands, late 2025. Scripps News reported Pizza Hut selling wings for 67 cents and Wendy's selling a Frosty for 67 cents.
• Google, December 2025. Typing it into Google made the screen shake briefly, the German tech site Teltarif reported. We found no statement from Google, and the effect may not last.
• In-N-Out, December 2025. Newsweek reports the chain took 67 out of its ticket system, so orders go from 66 to 68. ABC7 says kids waited around to hear it called. The company had not broadly announced the change.
• The fade, March 2026. Yahoo Life found children and parents calling it over, and some talking about a "Great Meme Reset" that had left it in 2025.
• The Pope, May 2026. About 1,000 Catholic children appeared to teach Pope Leo XIV the hand sign at the Vatican, and he copied it. The Vatican has not commented on whether he meant the trend or was simply mirroring the children.

If your class will not stop, you have one cruel option. The linguist Adam Aleksic says the best way to kill it for sure is to start using it yourself. Before you do, Oxford's Andrea Quincey offers the kinder reading: it matters for children to have agency over their language, away from the grown-up world.

Why Gen Alpha slang moves so fast

Most of it is older ideas at a new speed. The Gen Z slang page explains how slang ages in general. Three things make this generation's words burn faster.

It lives in videos. FOX 9 says much of the emerging slang cannot be decoded without the trending clips it came from. That is why a word can make no sense to you and perfect sense to a room of eleven-year-olds. They have all seen the same short video, and you have not.

It is meant to shut you out. Shane Tilton of Ohio Northern University says slang is meant to be secretive, and to exclude or confuse outsiders. Aleksic says kids are actively looking to differentiate themselves from the norms adults set. So the moment you understand a word, it has started to fail.

It dies with its meme. "When a word gets tied to a meme, it dies out with the meme," Aleksic says. Dictionary.com reports that teens moved to a newer number once 6-7 spread to younger children and adults. Tilton says a slang term used to last about four years, and that it is getting quicker.

Not all of it is new, and some of it has real roots. Crash out began in African American Vernacular English. Lowkenuinely is built on low-key, which Dictionary.com associates with the same dialect. Say so when you explain them, because "the kids made it up" is often wrong.

What this list leaves out, on purpose

Several of the most repeated words on other Gen Alpha lists are missing here, and that was a choice. This page is written for rooms with twelve-year-olds and colleagues in them.

We left out sexual terms and words widely used with a sexual meaning, drug slang, slurs, words that rate bodies or looks, insults, and jokes at a generation's expense. Florida Today describes one recent word for unattractive as usually used in a bullying context, and it is not on this page.

We also name no child who became a meme. Several did, none of them asked for it, and you do not need their names to understand the joke.

If you hear a word that is not here, look it up on your own before you repeat it in front of a room. If a child asks what one of those words means, answer plainly and briefly.

How to run a Gen Alpha quiz with a room

The best version of this game puts one grown-up against everyone else. The teacher, the manager or the parent plays along and loses in public, and the room gets to be the expert. Everyone joins from their own phone with a code, with no app and no account.

Start from a ready-made quiz. Make a live quiz in Decka and open "More" above the form. "The Gen Alpha Quiz" and "The Brainrot Quiz" are both there. Each fills the form with its questions, and you can change any of them.

Test meaning, not age. Every question in those two uses the word in a sentence, so someone who has never heard it can still work it out. The wrong answers are written to embarrass nobody.

Stop after each answer. Ask someone who got it right to explain the word. That is where the room teaches the grown-up, and it is the part people remember.

Save "The 6-7 Quiz" for the end. 6-7 has no fixed meaning to test, so this quiz, also under "More", asks about the meme itself. It opens with seven real moments, including the burger chain that took order number 67 out of its system, and finishes with a round where every answer is 6 or 7.

Keep to these words. Everything in the quizzes has been checked for a room of twelve-year-olds. If you add your own word, look it up first, and keep every question about a word and never about a person in the room.

For a longer game, use a board. Questionable! is a Jeopardy-style game that the whole room plays at once. Open "More" and pick "Gen Z & Gen Alpha slang". Its six categories include Say It in Gen Alpha and Brainrot. The team in control votes for a clue, everyone answers on their phone, and the team's most popular answer is the one that counts. The Gen Z slang page has a deck ready for it.

The two decks on this page have the quizzes ready to open:

• Gen Alpha and brainrot: what does it mean? runs two rounds, then asks the room which word will be gone first.
• The 6-7 Quiz: one meme, start to finish opens by asking the room what 6-7 means, runs the quiz, and ends on a vote about whether it is still alive.

Jeopardy! is a registered trademark of Jeopardy Productions, Inc., including for online games. Decka is not affiliated with the show or its owners. We name it only to say what the format is like, and Questionable! uses none of the show's names or catchphrases.