Brainrot Words List, With a Cheat Sheet for Parents

Brainrot words are the meme vocabulary of kids and teens online: words like skibidi, rizz, gyatt, fanum tax, sigma, Ohio, 6-7, aura, mewing, glazing and cooked, plus stacked phrases such as "goofy ahh," "sussy baka" and "negative 1,000 aura." Most of them came from one viral video, stream or sound, and several mean almost nothing at all. That is the point: saying them proves you are in on the joke. The large majority are harmless. A few are crude or about bodies, and a small number are insults for women that turn up on the viral lists kids hand to their parents. The full list is below, sorted and rated, followed by real-world sentences translated into plain English and a clean script you can read aloud.

What makes a word "brainrot"

Brainrot itself means the foggy feeling of too much low-effort scrolling, and the silly content that causes it. Oxford University Press named brain rot its Word of the Year on December 2, 2024, and pointed to Alexey Gerasimov's Skibidi Toilet videos and "only in Ohio" memes as the kind of content it describes.

A brainrot word is the slang that spreads out of that content. Ordinary slang usually does a job: "salty" means bitter, "ghosting" means disappearing on someone. Brainrot words do something stranger. They tend to share four traits:

• Thin meaning. Skibidi can mean good, bad or nothing. When Dictionary.com picked 67 as its 2025 Word of the Year, it called the word impossible to define and described it as a hallmark of brainrot.
• One clear source. Each word points back to a specific stream, YouTube series or TikTok sound. Knowing the source is the joke.
• Stacking. The words are built to be piled on top of each other, as in "what the sigma, that's so Ohio."
• Said for the sound. Many are shouted, chanted or performed with a gesture, which is why teachers hear them more than they read them.

Plenty of normal Gen Z words, such as rizz, bussin and delulu, get swept onto brainrot lists anyway, because the lists are made by kids and they include whatever is funny to hear an adult say.

The brainrot words list, rated

Ratings, from least to most concern:

• Fine: harmless at home and at school.
• Cheeky: a little crude, mean or rude-adjacent. Not worth a fight unless aimed at a real person.
• Talk about it: about bodies, sexual, or a slur.

The words most likely to show up on a viral list but missing from the table above are sexual or slurs. They are covered in the section on words to cut before reading.

Where brainrot words come from

Most of the list traces back to a handful of sources. Knowing them makes new words easier to decode, because the next wave usually comes from the same places.

Livestreamers

Twitch and YouTube streamers, especially Kai Cenat and his AMP group, are the single biggest source. Cenat popularized rizz, which Oxford made its 2023 Word of the Year. Fanum tax is named after AMP streamer Fanum, whose habit of grabbing friends' food became a running joke: Know Your Meme traces it to a clip from a Christmas stream posted on December 23, 2022. Gyatt, a clipped "goddamn," was popularized by streamer YourRAGE. And chat, as in "chat, is this real?", copies the way streamers talk to the chat window full of viewers.

YouTube series and TikTok sounds

Skibidi Toilet began on February 7, 2023, as an 11-second video by Alexey Gerasimov, set to a mashup of Timbaland's "Give It to Me" and Biser King's "Dom Dom Yes Yes." Cambridge Dictionary added skibidi in 2025, defining it as a word that can mean cool or bad, or be used as a joke with no meaning. "Erm, what the sigma" came from a TikTok of voice messages posted on March 4, 2024, in a voice that sounded like Squidward. 6-7 came from Philadelphia rapper Skrilla's "Doot Doot (6 7)" and highlight edits of 6-foot-7 basketball player LaMelo Ball, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Black American English

A large share of the list comes from African American Vernacular English, often by way of streamers and rappers. Bussin, crash out, crine, unc, let him cook and gyatt all have AAVE roots. So does "goofy ahh": Know Your Meme describes it as an AAVE phrase meaning "goofy ass," seen on Twitter as early as 2009 and spread on TikTok from late 2021. Kids rarely know this history, and it is worth telling them where the words they love came from.

Gaming

Gaming habits shape the grammar of brainrot. NPC is a game's computer-controlled character. Sus is far older, but the game Among Us made it explode in 2020, and "sussy baka" followed on TikTok in March 2021. Aura points work like an in-game score: Know Your Meme found the first "how many aura points did I lose" post on May 1, 2024, and "-1000 aura" captions within two weeks.

Looks forums and the manosphere

This is the source parents should know about. Sigma, mogging, mewing and looksmaxxing began in online communities that rank men by dominance or rate faces and bodies. Mewing is named after British orthodontists John and Mike Mew, and Dictionary.com notes that orthodontic experts deny it reshapes the jaw. Collins named mogging its 2026 Word of the Year on November 3, 2026, noting that younger users mostly use it as playful teasing between friends. Most kids say these words as jokes. A few take the ideas behind them seriously, which is where a conversation helps.

Real people

Some brainrot is just a person's name. Baby Gronk is the nickname of Madden San Miguel, a youth football player compared to NFL star Rob Gronkowski. NBC News reported in June 2023 that the "Livvy rizzed up Baby Gronk" meme came from a TikTok joke by a college lacrosse player, and that the real meeting on LSU's campus was simply friendly. It is worth reminding kids that the boy in the meme is a real child.

How brainrot words stack

Brainrot grammar is a short set of templates. Learn these and you can decode words that do not exist yet.

Brainrot sentences, translated

Brainrot is hardest to follow in full sentences, so here are typical lines with their plain meanings.

If a sentence still makes no sense, try the Gen Z translator, or ask the person who said it. Most kids enjoy explaining.

The "parents read the brainrot list" trend

By early 2025, a popular TikTok challenge has had kids write a list of brainrot words and ask a parent or grandparent to read it aloud on camera. Distractify and Dexerto, which both covered the trend in early 2025, describe the twist: the kid holds a mouthful of water and tries not to laugh while the adult struggles through the pronunciation. Laughing usually means spraying water.

The lists vary, but the same words recur: skibidi, rizz, rizzler, level 10 gyatt, Baby Gronk, fanum tax, sigma, bussin, 6-7, crash out, glazing, negative 1,000 aura, goofy ahh, sussy baka and cooked. Dexerto's version added delulu, mogging, mewing, looksmaxxing and zesty.

Here is the catch for parents. Several popular lists also include a crude phrase about women's bodies, a slur for women and an expression of sexual attraction, and the joke partly depends on the adult not knowing. Read any list you are handed before you read it out loud.

A clean script to read aloud

This version uses only words rated fine or cheeky above. Read it straight-faced.

Okay chat, listen up. Dinner tonight was bussin, no cap. Your brother tried to fanum tax my fries, which was very Ohio of him. Minus a thousand aura. I'm not glazing, but your sister has rizz and she is lowkey goated at chess. Me? I'm cooked. Skibidi. Six seven. Now lock in and finish your homework, or it's straight to bed. Erm, what the sigma.

What you just said

Words to cut before reading a list

• Gyatt and "level 10 gyatt." A reaction to someone's body. Fine to understand, odd to hear from a parent.
• "Fine shyt." Means sexually attractive.
• Words ending in "-uzz." "Where the huzz at" and its spin-offs come from a crude word for women. The offensive slang guide explains them plainly.
• Zesty. Often a tease that a boy seems flamboyant, used as a gay joke. Some people use it fondly, many use it to mock.
• Mewing and looksmaxxing. Harmless to read, but a good prompt to ask whether anyone at school is rating faces.

Which brainrot words to worry about

Almost none, as words. The nonsense terms, such as skibidi, Ohio, 6-7 and "what the sigma," carry no hidden meaning. Parents have passed around theories about 6-7, from street numbers to police radio codes. The Philadelphia Inquirer looked at them in 2025 and concluded the meaning does not really matter, and Dictionary.com treats it as deliberately meaningless. Schools that ban it are dealing with a chant that interrupts lessons.

The ones worth a second look fall into three groups.

1. Looks and ranking words. Mogging, chopped, mewing and looksmaxxing are fun to say, but they come from communities that score people's faces and bodies. If a child sounds anxious about their jaw, their weight or their "rating," that matters more than the vocabulary.
2. Body and sexual words. Gyatt and the phrases in the list above are crude. Kids often repeat them without understanding them. Explaining calmly works better than a ban, which tends to make a word more fun.
3. Content, not words. The original audio of Tralalero Tralala, the first Italian brainrot character, contained Italian profanity aimed at God and Allah, according to Know Your Meme, and the uploader's account was banned. Most remixes kids see are cleaned up, but not all.

Brain rot is not a medical diagnosis, even though Oxford's own definition calls the mental decline "supposed." If you are worried about screen time, the advice therapist Cheryl Eskin gave Good Morning America in 2025 is a sensible place to start: stay curious, ask what your child enjoys about the videos, set limits on time rather than on creativity, and watch for trouble focusing without constant stimulation. Related terms include doomscrolling for endless scrolling and slop for mass-produced AI content.

Italian brainrot: the character names

In early 2025, AI-made characters with fake Italian names took over kids' feeds, and their names now appear on brainrot lists. The best known:

• Tralalero Tralala: a three-legged shark in sneakers, generally considered the first.
• Tung Tung Tung Sahur: a wooden figure holding a bat. The name is Indonesian, not Italian. It imitates the drums used to wake people for sahur, the pre-dawn meal during Ramadan.
• Bombardiro Crocodilo: a crocodile fused with a bomber plane, often misspelled Bombardino. Its narration drew criticism for making light of bombing in Gaza.
• Ballerina Cappuccina: a ballerina with a coffee cup for a head.

On Roblox, "a brainrot" usually means one of these characters as a collectible in Steal a Brainrot, a game released on May 16, 2025, that later passed 25 million players online at once. The full cast is in Italian brainrot characters explained, and Roblox terms are in Roblox slang for parents.

How to reply when your kid talks in brainrot

Short, light replies work best. Matching the energy gets further than a lecture.

• "Mom, you have negative aura." "I'll farm it back by Friday."
• Your kid takes a fry off your plate and says "fanum tax." "Then I'm taxing your dessert."
• "Six seven" in reply to every question. "Six seven is not a time. When will you be home?"
• "I'm cooked" before a test. "Cooked, or worried? Let's look at what's left to study." If "I'm cooked" or "I'm crashing out" starts to sound like real distress, ask directly how they are doing. In the US, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
• "He's so chopped" about a classmate. "Would you say that to his face? Then let's not say it behind his back."
• A word you don't know. "What does that mean?" It is the best reply on this page. Kids love being the expert.

Adults can use brainrot words back occasionally, as a joke. Used straight, they sound like trying too hard, which is exactly why the read-aloud trend is funny. The slang age quiz will tell you how far behind you are.

Printable brainrot cheat sheet

Print this section and keep it on the fridge.

Means nothing at all: skibidi, 6-7, "what the sigma," Tung Tung Tung Sahur.

Means weird: Ohio, goofy ahh, sus.

Means good: bussin, goated, tuff, rizz, let him cook, sigma (said jokingly).

Means bad: mid, cooked (doomed), chopped (ugly), negative aura, NPC.

About cool: aura, aura farming, rizz, rizzler, mogging.

About people: chat (everyone here), unc (old person, teasing), yapper (talks too much), Baby Gronk (a real kid from a meme).

About food: fanum tax (stealing a bite), bussin (delicious).

Reactions: crine (crying laughing), crash out (meltdown), delulu (unrealistic), glazing (overpraising).

Ask about it: gyatt, mewing, looksmaxxing, zesty, any word ending in "-uzz."

Best reply to anything: "What does that mean?"

Key takeaways

• Brainrot words are meme slang from streamers, YouTube series, TikTok sounds and gaming, and many of them mean almost nothing on purpose.
• The core list is skibidi, Ohio, 6-7, rizz, gyatt, fanum tax, sigma, mewing, aura, glazing and cooked, plus stacked phrases like goofy ahh and negative 1,000 aura.
• Most are harmless. Gyatt, the "-uzz" words and "fine shyt" are crude, and looks words like mogging and looksmaxxing come from communities that rate bodies.
• If you join the read-aloud trend, read the list first. A clean script is above.
• Skibidi, Ohio and fanum tax are fading. Aura, mogging, crine and chat are where the energy is in late 2026.

FAQ

What is the most popular brainrot word?

6-7. An Unscramblerer analysis of Google searches from January 1 to August 27, 2026, reported by Mental Floss, ranked it the most searched Gen Alpha slang term, ahead of chud, rizz and cap. Dictionary.com had already named it Word of the Year for 2025. Among kids themselves, the chant peaked in 2025.

Are brainrot words bad words?

Most are not. Skibidi, Ohio, 6-7, fanum tax, rizz and aura contain no swearing or hidden meaning. A few common entries are crude: "goofy ahh" stands in for a rude word, gyatt reacts to someone's body, and some viral lists include sexual phrases and slurs for women. Rate the word, not the genre.

Why do kids say brainrot words so much?

Because they are shared jokes. Saying "six seven" or "what the sigma" signals that you watched the same videos as everyone else, and the nonsense is part of the fun. Oxford's language team noted in 2024 that the younger generations using "brain rot" show a cheeky self-awareness about the content they enjoy.

Is it "brainrot" or "brain rot"?

Both are used. Oxford writes brain rot as two words. Online, and in names like Italian brainrot and Steal a Brainrot, the one-word spelling is more common. The brainrot term page covers the word itself, and the Gen Alpha slang guide covers the wider vocabulary of kids born from 2010 on.