Gen Alpha slang: what it means and what's dying
Gen Alpha slang is the newest layer of internet talk, from people born from about 2010 onward. It borrows plenty from Gen Z, then adds words that come from memes, games and short videos, often called brainrot words. Some of them mean something. Some of them mean almost nothing, and that’s the joke.
Here’s what the main ones mean, and something most lists skip: how fast they’re fading. We checked how many people search for each word every month, and the drop is steep.
The words, and what they mean
| Word | What it means | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|
| six seven (67) | nothing, really. It’s a shouted joke, often with a hand gesture | ”what page are we on?” “six seven!“ |
| skibidi | a nonsense word from a viral video series, used for anything silly or weird | ”that was so skibidi” |
| sigma | someone who does their own thing and doesn’t follow the crowd, often said as a joke | ”eating lunch alone in the library, so sigma” |
| aura / aura points | how cool someone seems, counted like a score | ”tripping on stage was minus a thousand aura” |
| rizz / rizzler | charm, especially when flirting; a rizzler has lots of it | ”he walked up and asked her name, the rizzler” |
| gyatt | a loud reaction to how good someone looks | ”she walked in dressed up and everyone went gyatt” |
| brainrot | silly online content, or the feeling of having watched too much of it | ”three hours of videos, pure brainrot” |
| mewing | a jaw exercise trend, now a joke gesture for “I can’t talk right now" | "finger to lips I’m mewing” |
| -maxxing | going all in on improving one thing | ”sleepmaxxing this weekend” |
| mog | to look way better than the people next to you | ”that new jacket mogs everything in the shop” |
| Ohio | weird, strange (as a joke, nothing to do with the real state) | “a dog wearing shoes? that’s so Ohio” |
| cooked | in big trouble, or finished | ”I forgot the test was today, I’m cooked” |
| chat | talking to the room as if it’s a livestream audience | ”chat, is this real?“ |
| lock in | focus hard | ”exams tomorrow, time to lock in” |
| crash out | lose your temper, go over the top | ”he crashed out over one missed goal” |
| glazing | praising someone way too much | ”stop glazing your favorite player” |
| clanker | a joking name for a robot or AI | ”the self-checkout clanker won’t take my card” |
| delulu | believing something unrealistic, usually as a joke | ”delulu is the solulu” |
| npc | someone acting like a background character | ”he just stood there like an npc” |
| it’s giving | it has the look or energy of | ”the kitchen is giving restaurant” |
How fast Gen Alpha words die
Slang has always faded. What’s new is the speed. These are the monthly searches for “what does … mean” in the United States, at each word’s peak and again in August 2026:
| Word | At its peak | August 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 67 | 5,000,000 (Oct 2025) | 135,000 | −97% |
| six seven | 301,000 (Oct 2025) | 6,600 | −98% |
| skibidi | 27,100 (Sep 2025) | 4,400 | −84% |
| sigma | 49,500 (Sep 2025) | 9,900 | −80% |
| gyatt | 18,100 (Sep 2025) | 4,400 | −76% |
| rizz | 27,100 (Oct 2025) | 9,900 | −63% |
| aura | 18,100 (Oct 2025) | 9,900 | −45% |
| “brainrot words” | 22,200 (Oct 2025) | 3,600 | −84% |
Source: Google search volumes from DataForSEO, United States, pulled 26 September 2026.
Two things stand out. First, “six seven” was enormous. Five million searches in one month is more than most words ever get. It was a school-year craze, and it fell away almost as fast as it arrived. Second, the words that fade slowest (aura, rizz) are the ones that actually mean something. A word that’s pure noise, like skibidi, has nothing to keep it alive once the joke is old.
Which words will last
Compare those drops with the short, useful words people type every day. Searches for what istg means went up over the same year, and ngl, wdym and iykyk held steady or grew (see texting acronyms). A word survives when it does a job, like saving you typing, or naming a feeling there wasn’t a word for.
So if you’re guessing: rizz, aura, cooked and lock in look like they’ll stick around. Six seven and skibidi are already the kind of thing people say ironically, which is usually the last stage before a word disappears.
Gen Alpha slang vs Gen Z slang
Most of what Gen Alpha says is Gen Z slang: no cap, bet, slay, mid, lowkey, sus. The difference is the top layer. Gen Z slang mostly came from texting, Black internet culture and fan culture. Gen Alpha’s newest words come from memes, streamers and video games, and they arrive and leave on the speed of a trend. There’s a longer list in our Gen Z slang guide.
Try reading it for real
A word list is easy. A whole sentence in slang is harder. Yapology hides a phrase like “istg if I fail I’m cooked” and you guess it one letter at a time. Solve it and it flips into plain English, with what each slang word means. There’s a new phrase every day, and an Endless mode if one isn’t enough.