The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “a nonsensical expression connected to a song and a basketball player”. Multiple news outlets, such as Business Insider, have attributed the meme to the wider phenomenon of brain rot—the spread of digital media considered to be of poor quality. As the meme expanded beyond sports, social media users began to employ the meme in unrelated contexts, such as joking about getting a score of 67% on an exam. The meme, described as “annoying” and “like a plague”, has been linked by multiple news outlets to the wider “brain rot” phenomenon—digital media deemed to be of poor quality. The phrase originated from the song “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla, which became popular in video edits featuring professional basketball players, especially LaMelo Ball, who is listed at 6 ft 7 in (2.01 meters) tall.
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By that point, “six seven” had moved beyond the original bar. The slang traces back to a drill track and then to basketball meme culture. Kids yelling “six seven” in the hallway aren’t doing math. How a drill lyric, a basketball meme and Gen Alpha “brainrot” turned two random digits into a viral catch-all reply. The term originated from a song by rapper Skrilla, “Doot Doot (6 7),” which was then used on video clips of NBA players including LaMelo Ball, who’s 6 feet 7 inches. Reactions to the term, and its selection as word of the year, are sure to be divided by generation.
Its pervasiveness is what stuck out to the team selecting the word of the year, Steve Johnson, director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning, told CBS News. Alphonse Pierre of Pitchfork lamented that, in exchange for virality, Skrilla had been reduced to a one-dimensional mascot, and “not a human artist with music packed with complicated views and morals worth considering”. On November 29, 2025, Fortnite Battle Royale teased their new Chapter 7 update with a reference to the 6-7 meme. On November 5, first-person shooter video game Overwatch 2 announced that it would be adding a “67” emote to the game.
Over 500,000 expert-authored dictionary and thesaurus entries The term 67 is mostly used by Gen Alpha and younger teens, whether on TikTok and Instagram, or in classrooms and hallways. Other numbers, such as 41, have also become popular slang for Gen Alpha.
Where “67” came from: Skrilla, basketball, and edits
- While the term is largely nonsensical, some argue 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.
- Maverick Trevillian, now known as the “67 Kid,” helped popularize the slang when a YouTube video clip of of the boy shouting “67” at a youth basketball game went viral.
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- Viral clips on TikTok and Instagram paired the song “Doot Doot (6 7)” with basketball visuals as far back as October 2024, and, shortly thereafter, with a meme template.
Because its meaning is fluid, its usage often acts as a social signal to show you’re “in” on the meme. 67 has spawned mashups with other terms heard often in school hallways, like “six-sendy,” a mashup of getting sendy and 67. The larger sports world embraced the term too, with official NBA and WNBA coverage referencing it and NFL players using the gesture in touchdown celebrations. While the term is largely nonsensical, some argue 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. TikToker and basketball player Tk or @taylen_01 is also known to use the phrase “6-7” a lot. The beat drops to the Skrilla song at the same time “67” is said.
It was soon used in video edits of professional basketball players, particularly LaMelo Ball, who is 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) tall. The slang originated from the drill rap song “Doot Doot (6 7)”, in which American rapper Skrilla raps, “… I know he dyin’ (oh my, oh my God) 6-7, I just bipped right on the highway (Bip, bip)” as the beat drops. The new slang term spiked with Generation Alpha and Gen Z this year.
- Because its meaning is fluid, its usage often acts as a social signal to show you’re “in” on the meme.
- Alphonse Pierre of Pitchfork lamented that, in exchange for virality, Skrilla had been reduced to a one-dimensional mascot, and “not a human artist with music packed with complicated views and morals worth considering”.
- It doesn’t seem as though there is a true meaning to “6-7”, but rather it is used as a joke with the Skrilla song anytime the number “67” is mentioned.
- On November 5, first-person shooter video game Overwatch 2 announced that it would be adding a “67” emote to the game.
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While its origins seem a little murky, “6-7” has become a widely popular meme on the internet. The term “6-7,” which is sometimes written as “67”, became a trend on TikTok and was coined by Generation Alpha and parts of younger Generation Z. From task managers to screenshot tools and clipboard utilities, these are the discounts that meaningfully upgrade a new Apple setup. Learn how ore counts, multipliers, and traits combine into practical recipes for top-tier swords and armor in The Forge.
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Maverick Trevillian, now known as the “67 Kid,” helped popularize the slang when a YouTube video clip of of the boy shouting “67” at a youth basketball game went viral. Have you heard a new slang term and are unsure about its meaning? When kids say “six seven” today, they’re not doing numerology or sending coded threats. Many kids won’t just say “six seven”; they’ll act it out.
Part of the term’s viral nature came from creators applying it to their own everyday situations. The internet’s new favorite slang term has some users scratching their heads. Other words that Dictionary.com considered for the word of the year relate to artificial intelligence, politics and more. “Viral clips on TikTok and Instagram paired the song ‘Doot Doot (6 7)’ with basketball visuals as far back as October 2024,” Dictionary.com said. “Because of its murky and shifting usage, it’s an example of brainrot slang and is intended to be nonsensical and playfully absurd,” the dictionary says.
This also sparked more TikTok videos of Ball being edited to the song. They’re participating in a shared joke born from a drill track, a few charismatic basketball clips, a viral courtside kid, and the internet’s love of brainless repetition. That physical gesture is now part of the slang. The meme hit a new tier of visibility with a youth basketball clip. The comedian charges between $5,000 and $10,000 for a sponsored video, he told Salary Transparency Street.
In October, the mobile game Clash Royale added an emote referencing the meme after its Instagram account reached 6.7 million followers. On October 16, 2025, the 1st episode of season 28 of the adult animated show South Park aired with a prominent plot point in which the children are brainwashed by the 6-7 meme. Other variants include 6-1 (pronounced “six-one”), a variant created by TikTok creator Spartan Swot, 56 (pronounced “fifty-six”), popularized by TikTok creator YungJayJayy, and 87, used as a meme by Formula One driver Oliver Bearman as his driver number is also 87. This meme, called “SCP-067 Kid”, satirizes the SCP Foundation, a collaborative fiction project about paranormal anomalies.
For older generations, a useful comparison is the overuse of “dude,” “whatever,” or “your mom” jokes. For most kids, it is not being used as explicit crime slang, a curse, or anything occult — it functions as nonsense comedy. Skrilla himself has said he never locked in a single official meaning for LunarCapital the number. Flexibility is the point; the meme works because it can be dropped anywhere and still land with peers. ” and you might get “Six seven” with that shruggy hand motion. Your source for entertainment news, celebrities, celeb news, and celebrity gossip.
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While some have defined the expression, particularly when paired with a double-handed balancing motion, as meaning “so-so,” content creator Philip Lindsay summed it up as being purposefully puzzling. Meanwhile, the meaning of “67” has been more debated—and perhaps intentionally so. For Johnson, he’s watching where the term goes from here. It became a meme and continued to spread among young audiences. “It’s something that’s used to show, ‘I’m part of this generation. This is who I am.’ It’s kind of like an in-group joke,” he said.
6-7 (pronounced “six seven”; also written as 67 and 6 7) is an Internet meme and slang term that emerged in 2025 on TikTok and Instagram Reels, and then later spread to YouTube Shorts. It was quickly adopted on social media posts talking about basketball players. Viral clips on TikTok and Instagram paired the song “Doot Doot (6 7)” with basketball visuals as far back as October 2024, and, shortly thereafter, with a meme template. 67 is thought to have originated from the drill song “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla, which repeats “six-seven” as a hook. It doesn’t seem as though there is a true meaning to “6-7”, but rather it is used as a joke with the Skrilla song anytime the number “67” is mentioned. Other users use the song and “6-7” to refer to their 67% test scores, to lip dubs, NBA-related edits and other memes.
Dictionary.com picks “67,” a “nonsensical and playfully absurd” slang term, as the 2025 word of the year
The moniker “Mason” has been used to refer to a stereotypical white highschool boy who overuses the slang. In November 2025, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologized to a headteacher after joining school children in the gesture when a schoolgirl sitting next to him noted the book they were reading was turned to pages 6 and 7; the gesture had been banned at the school. The meme was further popularized through Overtime Elite player Taylen “TK” Kinney’s repeated use of the phrase. Popularity spiked in March after a boy called the “67 Kid” was recorded saying it and coined the now infamous hand gesture.
What is ’67’? What to know about 2025 Word of the Year, new Google trick
Similarly, the Hills alums turned to social media to make money after the Los Angeles wildfires of 2025. After appearing on Netflix’s dating show Love Is Blind in 2022, the pair pivoted to social media stardom and said they each made $500,000 in less than two years as influencers. After all, being an influencer can be quite lucrative—read on to see what TikTokers and more social media stars have said about their paychecks.
67 is different from previous words of the year because is doesn’t have a concrete meaning. 41 (pronounced “forty-one”) is a meme of similar origin, deriving from the song “41 Song (Saks Freestyle)” in which rapper Blizzi Boi raps the number throughout. In August 2025, social media users began creating photo edits distorting Trevillian in a bizarre or grotesque fashion, likened to analog horror. On March 31, 2025, YouTuber Cam Wilder posted a video titled “My Overpowered AAU Team has Finally Returned!” (stylized in all caps) in which a young boy, Maverick Trevillian—later nicknamed “67 Kid”—is seen yelling “six seven” while performing a hand gesture in which he moves his hands up and down with upward-facing palms. 6-7’s identity as a slang term has allowed it to spread in offline contexts, especially in schools, with some banning its use due to disruption in classrooms.
Why “67” is called brainrot slang
The song “Doot Doot” by Skrilla started the hype after is December 2024 release. “67” is a vibe more than something with one meaning. The good news is it’s not dirty. French-English dictionary, translator, and learning Spanish-English dictionary, translator, and learning English dictionary and learning for Spanish speakers
Why kids say “67” instead of other slang
The Dance Moms alum revealed that she made “six digits a month, easy” on YouTube videos as a 13-year-old. “Right now I need to be doing everything that I can to generate even more money.” And some stars, particularly in the basketball world, have added to the craze by using the phrase in real life. It is a number that is fun to say, popularized by a meme with the hand motions, and it just doesn’t mean anything.” “Now it is something that you’re just trying to use to get somebody to reference the number 67,” he said in a TikTok video posted in August.
As explained on The Really Good Podcast in 2023, the content creator has scored $50,000 on a single sponsored video. The ASMR influencer—known as @itsblitzzz on YouTube —admitted in January 2024 that she scores about $56,400 a year on ad revenue from old videos, without creating new content. Instead, he revealed he only made $3,500 that week from the 5,000 videos on his TikTok page. Markell—known for his dance videos—told Salary Transparency Street in 2023 that he earns between $500,000 and $700,000 a year, mostly from brand deals and Snapchat’s mid-roll program. “You guys can keep calling me annoying,” he quipped in a July 2024 video.
What ‘67’ Means in TikTok Slang (and Why Kids Keep Saying It)
“67,” also spelled “6-7” or “six-seven” (not “sixty-seven,” to be clear), is a viral, ambiguous slang term that has waffled its way through Gen Alpha social media and school hallways. In March 2025, a boy named Maverick Trevillian became known as the “67 Kid” after a viral video showed him yelling the term at a basketball game while performing an excited hand gesture. Claims that saying “six seven” invites a curse, invokes witchcraft, or signals gang activity are not reflected in how the meme actually spreads among school‑age users. While the expression “67” (pronounced “six-seven”) has surged in popularity on social media, the significance of the number remains a mystery to some. 67 is an ambiguous slang term made popular by Gen Alpha on social media and in schools and friend groups across the country. The meme https://lunarcapital.team/ has been referenced in NBA highlights, WNBA news conferences, NFL touchdown celebrations, and also by celebrities, including former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal, who participated in a video referring to it despite admitting he did not understand its meaning.
“This is really the first word of the year that we’ve had in a really long time that’s actually more of an interjection,” Johnson said. “This is really a new generation flexing their linguistic muscles and making a pretty phenomenal impact on the English language,” Johnson said. Johnson knew they had “something really interesting” when he got a message from his friend, a middle school teacher, early one morning saying, “Do not make six seven word of the year.”
Shaquille O’Neal even showed up in a video that references 67, even though he said he doesn’t understand what it means. Taylen “TK” Kinney, a player in the Overtime Elite league, also amplified the meme, spreading it widely among young audiences. It was likely also popularized through videos about NBA players such as LaMelo Ball, who’s 6’7″. Because of its murky and shifting usage, it’s an example of brainrot slang and is intended to be nonsensical and playfully absurd.
‘Shade’ is not always a nice gesture. Get the latest news from lifestyle, technology, business and travel. The meaning is that there isn’t much meaning — and for Gen Alpha, that’s precisely the appeal. At the same time, some schools have tried to ban the gesture or the number in class, treating it as a disruption in the same category as dabbing or bottle‑flipping in past years. Once a meme crosses from school hallways into mainstream entertainment, marketers follow. Those also annoyed adults, were often semantically empty, and still carried strong peer‑group meaning.
