As American kids head back to school, they’re likely to return home with an alien language their own parents may find befuddling.
From TikTok to the kitchen table, words like “rizzler” and “skibidi” are finding a foothold in the lexicon of today’s tweens.
Are you fluent enough to survive the back-to-school season? Put your knowledge to the test with this vocab quiz and then check your answers at the bottom of the article.
Sigma
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Your middle schooler describes his friend as “sigma.” That means he thinks his friend is:
a. weak
b. weird
c. Greek
d. an alpha male
Rizzler
U.S. & World
Your friend is described as a “rizzler.” That means he’s someone who:
a. is always late
b. likes to steal
c. is flirty
d. is loud
Skibidi
Your quiz skills are looking “skibidi.” That means they’re:
a. impressive
b. bad
c. awkward
d. a joke
Fanum tax
Your favorite snack has just been “fanum taxed!” What does that mean?
a. it was stolen
b. it was affected by inflation
c. it was dipped in chocolate
d. it was dropped on the floor
Mogging
A TikToker claims that Chris Evans “mogged” Chris Pine in a red carpet photo. What do they mean?
a. Evans looked taller than Pine
b. Evans looked better than Pine
c. Evans looked worse than Pine
d. Evans dressed with less pizazz than Pine
Mewing
As you prepare to take a photograph you start “mewing,” meaning....
a. you meow like a cat
b. you restructure your face to appear slimmer
c. you smile with your eyes
d. you frame your face with your hands
Ohio
A friend describes your outfit as “so Ohio.” That means it’s...
a. cringe
b. stylish
c. vintage
d. expensive
Answers
SIGMA: d. “Sigma,” in this case, does not mean the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet. Today, the word is used to describe an alpha male or macho dude. British GQ traced the term’s origins back to the so-called “manosphere,” a collection of online forums for misogynistic beliefs: “Sigma grindset merges this existing extremist thinking with posts about grind culture motivation, internet nihilism and workout content, creating a fusion of subcultures.”
RIZZLER: c. Oxford University, which named ‘rizz’ as its word of the year in 2023, defines the term as “someone’s ability to attract or seduce another person,” and nodded to a common assumption that the word is derived from the word charisma. A “rizzler” is the latest variation on the trend: Someone who is successful at flirting with people.
SKIBIDI: a, b, c and d. Trick question. “Skibidi,” pronounced like “skippity,” has no inherent meaning. It can be used as a wacky adjective to mean cool, bad or dumb, depending on the context, according to Urban Dictionary. It can also be used as a way to start a joking conversation in reference to absurd slang culture. The term is derived from a song used in the viral Skibidi Toilet YouTube Shorts series by Alexey Gerasimov; a single video in the series has over 201 million views. The #Skibidi hashtag on TikTok has over 670,000 posts and a version of the meme was referenced by Stephen Colbert on the Late show in May.
FANUM TAX: a. “Fanum tax” is the theft of food between friends. It was popularized on TikTok but created by Fanum, a Twitch streamer with over 2.5 million followers and member of fellow streamer Kai Cenat ’s social media influencer group, AMP.
MOGGING: b. “Mogging” gained popularity on TikTok, where users post slideshows of photos of celebrities in which one star outshines the rest, looking so attractive they make another look bad in comparison. In other words, they “mog” the competition. The word can be traced to incel-centric online forums from as early as 2016 where members, mostly men, discuss how to maintain dominant social status using their appearances.
MEWING: b. According to the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO), “mewing” is a technique in which one flattens their tongue against the roof of their mouth in attempt to define their jawline. The #mewing hashtag on TikTok is filled with over 421,000 videos teaching users how to mew, pose and define their jaws. Unfortunately for Gen Alpha, the AAO warns that this technique will probably not have any long-term benefits.
OHIO: a. The term “Ohio” is thought to have originated from memes like “it’s all Ohio” and “Only in Ohio” popularized in the last few years, according to the internet culture publication The Daily Dot. In more modern tween slang, the state of Ohio is used as a stand-in for anything that is weird, cringe or random.
