What Does “6-7” Mean? How a Number Became a Word of the Year

The origin, spread and business lessons of the viral 6-7 meme that Dictionary.com named its 2025 Word of the Year.

For most of history, numbers were things you counted with. In 2025 one pair of digits became something you said. “6-7” — spoken “six seven,” often with a palms-up, see-saw hand gesture — spread from short-form video into school hallways, sports broadcasts and brand social accounts. By late October 2025, Dictionary.com had named it its Word of the Year.

Where it came from

The phrase is usually traced to a rap track by the artist Skrilla titled “Doot Doot (6 7)”. The hook was clipped into countless edits, and its association with professional basketball — notably point guard LaMelo Ball, who helped popularise it as a nod to his height — gave it a sports-highlight life of its own. From there it became a Gen Alpha in-joke: shouted whenever the numbers 6 and 7 appear, or for no reason at all.

Why a meaningless number caught on

Dictionary.com's lexicographers described the term as part inside joke, part social signal and part performance. That combination explains its spread better than any literal meaning, because it has almost none. Three mechanics are at work:

• Low cost to join. Anyone can say two digits. There is no vocabulary to learn and no wrong way to use it.
• Built-in triggers. Numbers are everywhere — page numbers, scores, prices, clocks — so the meme re-surfaces constantly without anyone pushing it.
• Group identity. Using it marks you as in on the joke; confused adults are part of the fun.

The publisher's own data showed the term appearing in digital media roughly six times more often in October 2025 than its 2024 average — a classic viral curve.

What businesses can learn from it

Brands that tried to borrow the meme had mixed results; teenage audiences notice forced slang immediately. The useful lessons are structural rather than tactical:

1. Numbers are memorable assets. Short, rhythmic number strings are easy to say and share. This is why companies pay premiums for numeric phone lines, licence plates and domains.
2. Triggers beat reach. A message tied to an everyday cue gets repeated for free. Ask what everyday moment could remind a customer of your product.
3. Measure the curve. Viral attention spikes and decays. Use the percentage change calculator on your own traffic to separate a spike from a trend.

Is the number lucky or unlucky?

Neither, in the meme. In Chinese number symbolism, however, 6 is strongly positive (it sounds like the word for “smooth”), while 7 carries mixed associations. Our Number Lab breaks down any number by digit, pattern and memorability.