The Most Overused Slang Term of 2025 is One Experts Say You Should Banish Immediately

Dictionary.com named it their 2025 word of the year. The Ringerclaimed that it “ate parents’ minds.” But according to the experts at Lake Superior State University, everyone should stop using it altogether. That would be “6-7,” the ubiquitous meme accompanied by a hand gesture seemingly used by school-age children everywhere, which topped LSSU’s 50th annual list of banished words.

LSSU has been issuing its list of overused words since 1976, after someone came up with the idea at a New Years Eve party. In the intervening decades, the tradition has “grown into a global reflection on the words that wear out their welcome,” according to a statement. 

The 2026 banished words list was created based on more than 1,400 submissions from members of the public, which came in from every state in the U.S., as well as from such far flung places as Brazil and Uzbekistan. “6-7” received more submissions than any other term—as the university noted, “The volume of submissions for this one could have taken up the whole list, at least slots 6-7.” Other words run the gamut from corporate jargon to repeat offenders from banned lists past.

What Does “6-7” Mean?

Nothing—“6-7” is a nonsensical phrase meant to show who’s in the know and who’s not (usually kids and teachers, respectively). 

As Cynthia Gordon, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University, explained in an interview, “While it seems to be established that ‘6-7’ doesn’t carry much, or possibly any, informational meaning, it’s clear that it does carry social meaning, which is very important. … Use of ‘6-7’ connects insiders—young people—through shared understanding, building a community of children and adolescents that is set off from the world of adults. Forms like ‘6-7’ allow young people to express independence from older generations, while building solidarity amongst themselves.” 

Where Did “6-7” Originate?

“6-7” might not have a definitive meaning, but we do seem to know where it came from. 

It all started with the Skrilla song “Doot Doot,” which contains the lyrics “Shooter stay strapped, I don’t need mine / Bro put belt right to they behind / The way that switch brrt, I know he dyin’ (oh my, oh my God) / 6-7, I just bipped right on the highway (bip, bip).” The song was frequently used on TikTok alongside clips of the 6-foot-7 basketball player LaMelo Ball. 

According to The Ringer, the hand motion originated with a kid in the stands at an Amateur Athletic Union game, whose gesticulations were caught on video.  

If you want to have a little fun, put “6-7” into the Google search bar and see what happens (though you might want to avoid this if you get queasy easily).

The Complete List of 2026 Banished Words

Other words that ended up on LSSU’s list include repeat offenders like “my bad” (which made the list in 1988) and “reach out” (from 1994); “demure,” most often heard in the phrase “very demure, very mindful” (which originated with content creator Jools Lebron in a TikTok video); and “cooked,” which Merriam-Webster defines as “having achieved a state of failure; being doomed.” See the full list below.

• 6-7
• Demire
• Cooked
• Massive
• Incentivize
• Full stop
• Perfect
• Gift/gifted (as a verb)
• My Bad
• Reach Out