Say what! Gen Alpha's words of the year leave even Gen Z scratching their heads... so, how many do YOU know?
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The dialect used by the younger generation is always bound to befuddle those who've been around a little longer. However, it's less often that the words the latest generation are using have absolutely no discernible meaning to English speakers over the age of 27.
![[In a TikTok explaining the phrase, Australian creator, anthony.voulgaris, (pictured) said: 'I'm pretty sure slay used to mean, back in the day, to kill something so if you had slain an animal, you'd killed the animal]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/22/17/94395011-14313265-In_a_TikTok_explaining_the_phrase_Australian_creator_anthony_vou-a-42_1737567527422.jpg)
According to a new study by the Oxford University Press, one of the most popular words used by Generation Alpha - those born between 2010 and 2024 - is so offbeat that not even their closest peers, Gen Z, know what they're saying. A whopping 15 per cent of children surveyed revealed that their favourite term was 'skibidi' - a word that has left linguists scratching their heads.
![[Other strange new words to have materialised from the study are 'sigma' and 'slay, the former, pertaining to 'coolness', was in second place for the most popular words used by 11-year-olds]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/22/17/94395019-14313265-Other_strange_new_words_to_have_materialised_from_the_study_are_-a-44_1737567527423.jpg)
Nevertheless, the seemingly nonsensical word was voted as the third most used by children in 2024. You'd be forgiven for never coming across it though - apparently it only arrived on the word scene in 2023 after appearing in a bizarre YouTube video about cartoon toilets with human heads.
So, just how many of this year's most popular Gen Alpha words do you know? Test your knowledge with MailOnline's 12-question quiz... The dialect used by the younger generation is always bound to be different to that used by those who've been around for longer.
For those hoping to adopt 'skibidi' into their vocabulary, it doesn't necessarily have any one hard meaning and can be used in nearly any context the speaker would like. For example: 'that's skibidi' can carry multiple meanings and could be used to express disgust, great admiration, disdain or even bewilderment.
