Oxford University Press has declared its word of the year and it’s pure internet slang. “Rizz”, the online-favorite abbreviation of “charisma”, is the (un)likely winner.
“Rizz” beat out other worthy contenders, like situationship, de-influencing, parasocial, beige flag, and Swiftie. OUP defined the word as “pertaining to someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness”.
The word has been around since 2022, when YouTuber Kai Cenat coined it. But it truly reached virality thanks to a June 2023 interview with actor Tom Holland, who said: “I have no rizz whatsoever, I have limited rizz”. This clip generated countless memes online, leading to “rizz” becoming ubiquitous in the world of internet slang.
Casper Grathwohl, president at Oxford Languages, said that “rizz” speaks to “a prevailing mood of 2023, where more of us are opening ourselves up after a challenging few years and finding confidence in who we are.”
2023’s winner is in line with last year’s: “goblin mode”, another internet-specific term that only the Extremely Online would instantly recognize. Goblin mode, too, started as a meme and later took off on TikTok and even Spotify.
Some words chosen by the OUP have had long-lasting influence in the global cultural lexicon, like 2013’s “selfie”, 2014’s “vape”, and 2018’s “toxic”. Others, though, have already been rendered obsolete over the years. Only time will tell if “rizz” lasts the test of time.
