(NEXSTAR) — Just when you thought your children had outgrown saying phrases like “skibidi” or “demure” or “sigma,” they might now be using a fresh slang term: “6-7.”
Often written as “67” but pronounced “six seven” and typically said while alternating your hands up and down, palms facing up, as if juggling or weighing something, this slang unsurprisingly has its roots on the internet.
LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets and rapper Skrilla are given some of the credit for the new lingo.
In his December 2024 song “Doot Doot (6 7),” Skrilla says, “6-7, I just bipped right on the highway.”
The song was quickly adopted for fan videos showcasing clips of Ball. Standing at an NBA-standard 6’7” height, Ball has attracted a youth audience, in part due to the flair he exhibits on the court. Bleacher Report notes that this flashiness helped fuel the meme’s creation.
Ball isn’t particularly renowned for his on-court prowess, which has led to the interpretation that “6-7” and its corresponding “so-so” hand gesture can signify an average performance or situation.
However, if you have children within a certain age group, they might use it to describe anything: the time, their day, what they want for dinner, or why chores went undone.
“There’s virtually no situation where a kid might not say, ‘six seven,’” TikTok creator Mr. Lindsay explained. Your teens might not even understand why they’re saying it, say two teenagers interviewed by Nexstar.
Have we lost you? If so, you may not be prepared to hear that “6-7” is evolving.
According to Mr. Lindsay (and maybe your teens), “6-7” is being combined with “sendy.”
You may already be familiar with “sendy,” or its longer term, “send it.” You may have “sent it” when you tried to rollerblade over the rickety wooden ramp your friend built in their driveway, or when you quite literally sent a potentially risky text to your crush.
“Sendy” has entered the youth lexicon in connection with an apparently viral video in which one person responds, “Let’s get sendy” after another says, “There’s no commandment that says thou shall not send it.”
This phrase has its own hand motion, of course, in which the speaker pretends to take a shot. As Mr. Lindsay explains, any objection could be used to complete this motion, not exclusively a beverage. Combining “6-7” and “sendy” may sound like “six-sendy,” or “6-7endy.” But like “6-7,” it has hardly any meaning.
Nonetheless, for some, “6-7” has plenty of significance. Taylen Kinney, a 17-year-old highly ranked basketball player, has become popular for his use of “6-7” when asked just about anything. For example, as The Athletic reports, Kinney responded “6-7” when asked to rank his Starbucks drink. Several videos of Kinney using the slang have garnered plenty of attention in recent months. So much attention, in fact, that Kinney has launched a canned water brand — naturally, it’s called “6 7” water.
It’s too soon to say what the future of the phrase will be. Like others before it — remember skibidi and delulu? — there is a chance that “6-7” will earn a spot in an online dictionary like the Cambridge Dictionary. If you asked us the odds of “6-7” receiving the same recognition, we’d guess six, seven.
