Are you A Gigachad? Gen Alpha Slang Is Dominating The Internet, Leaving Millennials Scrambling To Catch Up

In recent years, the rise of Gen Alpha slang has left many parents and adults scratching their heads. The new vocabulary, featuring terms like “slay,” “rizz,” and “sigma,” has made it challenging for older generations to keep up. For instance, Jen Kim, a Dallas stay-at-home mom, finds herself constantly decoding the terms her 10-year-old niece, Avery, uses. When Avery called colored pencils “slay,” Kim understood it as “good.” However, she was less fortunate with terms like “rizz” (charisma) and “omega” (the lowest rank).

Educator Philip Lindsay observed that his middle school students can introduce over two dozen new slang words in a single week. Words like “sigma” (cool), “gyat” (attractive), and “skibidi” (a term from a viral YouTube video with varied meanings) are common in his classroom. Notably, “gigachad” describes an exceptionally masculine, attractive, and muscular individual—a modern-day ideal of a “chad.”

Parents are increasingly resorting to online searches to decode these terms. Boston mom Cecilia Hermawan had to Google “mewing,” a term for a jawline-enhancing exercise. Matt Murray, a dad who turns to Reddit for clarification, has mastered “sus” (suspicious) but finds “skibidi” elusive. Meanwhile, some parents like Carleen Haylett have given up trying to understand the ever-evolving slang.

Even older generations are not immune to the confusion. Sharon Blanchet, 78, had to ask her 17-year-old granddaughter what “homie hopping” meant, learning it referred to an ex-boyfriend dating one of your friends after a breakup.

As the language continues to evolve, parents and adults must adapt or, like Haylett, find a way to tune it out. The world of Gen Alpha slang is constantly shifting, creating a linguistic maze that leaves many feeling a little lost.

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