Banished Words List: The hackneyed phrases declared 'cooked' in 2026 include ‘demure’
Respondents to an annual US college survey of overused and misused words and phrases say “6-7” is “cooked” and should come to a massive full-stop heading into the new year.
Those are among the top 10 words on the 50th annual “Banished Words List” released by Lake Superior State University in Michigan, a tongue-in-cheek roundup of overused slang that started in 1976 as a New Year’s Eve party idea.
Around 1400 submissions came from all 50 American states and a number of countries including Uzbekistan, Brazil and Japan, according to the university.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Also in the top 10 are “demure”, “incentivise”, “perfect”, “gift/gifted”, “my bad” and “reach out”.
“My bad” and “reach out” also made the list decades ago, in 1998 and 1994 respectively.
“The list definitely represents the fad and vernacular trends of the younger generation,” said Lake Superior State University president David Travis.
“Social media allows a greater opportunity to misunderstand or misuse words. We’re using terms that are shared through texting, primarily, or through posting with no body language or tone context. It’s very easy to misunderstand these words.”
Few phrases in 2025 befuddled parents, teachers and others over the age of, say 40, more than “6-7”. Dictionary.com even picked it as their 2025 word of the year, while other dictionaries chose words like “slop” and “rage bait”.
But what does “6-7” actually mean? It exploded in 2025 especially among Gen Z, and is considered by many to be nonsensical in meaning - an inside joke driven by social media.
“Don’t worry, because we’re all still trying to figure out exactly what it means,” the dictionary’s editors wrote.
Each number can be spoken aloud as “six, seven.” They even can be combined as the number 67. At college basketball games, some fans explode when a team reaches that point total.
The placement of “6-7” at the top of the banished list puts it in good company. In 2019, the centuries-old Latin phrase “quid pro quo” was the top requested phrase to ban from popular use. In 2017, “fake news” got the most votes.
Travis said that some terms on the list “will stick around in perpetuity”, while others will be fleeting.
“I think ‘6-7’, next year, will be gone,” he said.
