The math teacher stands before the board, jotting down the final equations to a problem. The students watch the numbers march by listlessly until their eyes alight on a particular two, arranged in consecutive order. The teacher has made the fatal mistake of dividing 134 by two.
The class explodes in raucous laughter, students juggling their hands in alternating motions and screaming “6-7,” some shaking their heads, resigned. The teacher, unaware of what lurks on the internet, looks on in confusion before quelling the commotion. They ask the class today’s most pressing and inescapable question: What is 6-7?
You may have heard the phrase lobbed around by the likes of broccoli-haired 13-year-old boys and grandparents wishing to cash in on the younger generation’s goodwill. For the last month it has occupied Oak Park High School’s vernacular, though it has faded rapidly from common use as the trend cycle rambles on.
“During class time, or after class or support, I asked somebody what [6-7 was],” history teacher Victor Anderson said. “Why were people laughing? They said, ‘oh, you don’t know?’ And I don’t know. I say, ‘what’s it mean?’”
6-7 is the latest introduction to the younger generation’s extensive dictionary of slang. However, among other terms like “cooked” or “skibidi toilet,” what sets it apart is its constant presence in our world. 6-7 is a pair of numbers that one cannot avoid, often placed together due to the fact that they are next to each other on the number line, and thus the laughter that follows it becomes unavoidable.
Its origins are most widely attributed to the song “Doot Doot (6 7)” by rapper Skrilla. The reason he chose these specific numbers is uncertain. However, the phrase likely gained traction due to a video of NBA player LaMelo Ball, who is six feet seven inches tall. Since then, countless videos of kids screaming the term, people dancing to the song and even 6-7 Halloween costumes have joined the cultural movement. Many will never hear 6-7 the same.
Now that it has been named Word of the Year by Dictionary.com, 6-7 has permanently cemented itself in pop culture. This choice is the result of a steady rise in the use of 6-7 starting from June of 2025, as well as its prevalence in search engine results, headlines and on social media. So its official: 6-7 is a word.
“I went on a deep dive on Google and found out what it means, and that is nothing,” math teacher Jared Weintraub said. “It’s just silly. So I go home, and my daughter’s talking about 6-7, and now she’s talking about 4-1.”
Based on the behavior thus displayed, 6-7 is likely the best example of classical conditioning to date—“an unconscious process where an automatic, conditioned response becomes associated with a specific stimulus,” most often studied in biology. The stimulus typically begins as neutral, meaning it normally does not elicit any response. 6-7 began as a neutral set of numbers, but has since become associated with the aforementioned mirth.
Today, conditioning people into certain behaviors has become all too rapid. There is a lack of questioning, similar to following the lead of someone walking off a cliff, that has permeated society. In psychology, this is known as “herd mentality,” where people are so focused on conforming that they lose the courage to express their own opinions.
Conformity is a crux of 6-7. Everyone’s saying it, so why not start saying it too?
Now, maybe 6-7 isn’t the degradation of our society, but perhaps it is the next marker in an already steep progression downwards. 6-7 is not a made-up term, like “rizz” and other “brainrot” terms; it has existed for hundreds of years. Once even numbers become mindless, what’s next?
