I First Thought Grandparents Should NOT Ask Grandchildren What ‘6 7’ Means
- Mema
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
I almost didn’t write this blog about ‘6 7.’ That is because I recently wrote a blog about skibidi and how shocked I was that a dictionary would permanently add a term such as this and wrote:
My grandson, who is fourteen, said that he was also shocked, literally shocked, that a dictionary put the word skibidi in it. He said words come and go and phrases come and go so quickly in his generation that he couldn’t believe a dictionary fell for a teenage meme. Not only that, he just recently taught me what a meme is!
“A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. In modern internet culture, the term is most commonly used to refer to a humorous image, video, or piece of text that is copied (often with slight variations) and shared rapidly online, primarily through social media platforms.”
Then adults got into ‘6 7.’
For Halloween, ‘6 7’ was all over adult Halloween costumes, and articles about ‘6 7’ started catching my eye, and so did the pictures of the costumes, easy to make, and colorful. See, “Adults are Ruining ‘6 7’ for Halloween,” by Julia Reinstein, The Cut, October 30, 2025.
Even when the most frequent use of costumes for Halloween were sheets with giant colorful letters ‘6 7’ on them, all over the news and social media, I decided I wasn’t going to share.
Then, in November 2025, when Dictionary.com decided to make the word of the year ‘6 7,’ I said I’m not going fall for this again and tell all of the parents and grandparents that are readers of my blog that they should pay attention to this.
However, Wednesday, December 10, 2025, Jimmy Kimmel had a whole sequence in his monologue on’6 7.’ He told about his children using ‘6 7’ on him. Then he showed a video clip of In-N-Out Burger in California. In-N-Out Burger in California has banned the number ‘6 7.’
The video clip showed everyone inside the burger joint going crazy when number ‘6 7’ was called for pick up. It was hysterical. Everyone was standing up and cheering yelling 676767. Of course, the punchline of Jimmy Kimmel’s joke was that they had previously banned 69 even though their name is in and out. Also hysterical.
So, I decided, ‘6 7’ has more staying power than skibidi. It is easier to remember, even for social media which has the staying power of a minute.
Both skibidi and ‘6 7’ mean nothing. Social media hysteria fueled by teenagers on social media. But as grandparents and parents, I am now convinced we should be aware of the current and maybe future use of ‘6 7’ in our lives. Hence, this blog post.
The New York Times helped me out with, “What Does ‘6-7’ Mean? Maybe Tweens Don’t Want You to Know. Everyone wants to understand the generation below them. Can young people rebuff those efforts by being completely absurd?” by Callie Holtermann, November 7, 2025
The author writes, “The conversation might go something like this. You’ll be informed that it doesn’t have a definition — it’s just funny, OK? And also, isn’t it a little bit embarrassing that you’re asking?”
The phrase is described “as an inside joke that gets funnier with each grown-up who tries and fails to understand it.”
So, I guess that we grandparents SHOULD NOT ask what ‘6 7’ means. But, we can show our cool (is that a word our grandchildren even know) in other ways.
It is traced to a song by a rapper, Skrilla, called “Doot Doot (6 7). I suggest you do not go as far as I did to listen to the song on YouTube!
I did look up the 26 year old rapper, and found the following:
“Jemille Edwards, known professionally as Skrilla, is an American rapper from the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He signed to Priority Records in 2023 and has released two albums through the label: Underworld and Zombie Love Kensington Paradise.”
Now you can surprise your grandchildren by this sharing this information, if you know how we should pronounce Skrilla. Or, just go around saying “Doot Doot (6 7)?
Dictionary.com admits that they are still trying to figure out exactly what ‘6 7,’ (pronounced exactly as you see) means.
This is why they chose ‘6 7’ as the word of the year?
“To select the 2025 Word of the Year, our lexicographers analyzed a large amount of data including newsworthy headlines, trends on social media, search engine results, and more to identify words that made an impact on our conversations, online and in the real world.”
I defined lexicographers in the blog post on skibidi.
“Searches for 67 experienced a dramatic rise beginning in the summer of 2025. Since June, those searches have increased more than sixfold, and so far the surge shows no signs of stopping. Most other two-digit numbers had no meaningful trend over that period, implying that there is something special about 67.”
They write ‘6 7’ and also 67.
My last search was about Dictionary.com. I found a resource for teachers, commonsense.org, that could be useful for parents and grandparents, that reviewed use of Dictionary.com:
“Pros: Definitions are sourced from reliable dictionary publishers; articles and videos explore how people use and adapt language.
Cons: Tons of ads, some adult content might make this a poor fit for the classroom.
Bottom Line: While there's some useful information here, teachers might look elsewhere for a go-to reference site.”
Let’s see how long ‘6 7’ lasts. Let’s see if my grandson is right with
Joy,
Mema