Listening to the conversations of young people, you can really start to wonder whether they still speak Polish. “Brainrot”, “szpont”, “skibidi”, “lowkey” or “67” – these are just some of the expressions that fill the dialogues of young Polish men and women. These words qualified for the PWN plebiscite for the Youth Word of the Year 2025.
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Last year, “sigma” triumphed in the plebiscite, this year you can choose among other words that won the hearts of young Poles. The finalists of this year's PWN plebiscite included expressions such as “6 7”, “brainrot”, “GOAT”, “spont” or “szponcić” and “slay”. Voting lasts until the end of November, and the winner will be announced in December.
As Onet reminds, the Youth Word of the Year is not only fun, but also an opportunity to understand how young people perceive the world and how they express their emotions. The words that make it to the finalist list often reflect trends in culture, social media and everyday language. It is also a chance to capture the changes in the Polish language that are taking place under the influence of globalization and the Internet.
Youth Word of the Year 2025. We got to know the proposals
As every year in the Youth Word of the Year plebiscite, this year's edition also included expressions that may not really mean much to people who do not use them on a daily basis. Especially when it comes to “6 7”, which qualified for the final vote, and became a hit all over the world.
The phrase comes from Skrill's song “Doot Doot” and became popular thanks to sports videos featuring basketball player LaMelo Ball and viral videos from “6 7 Kid”. It can mean a joke, joy, excitement or simply to keep the conversation going.
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The final list also included “brainrot”, a term for specific content created by TikTok users who are constantly “connected” to social media platforms. The word comes from English, where it means “brain rot” and names the practice of generating and absorbing content (image or language) that is purely entertaining, viral, meme, often absurd and surreal, without any specific meaning or purpose.
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Internet users also reported the word “bro”, which means “a friend, a friend, a close friend, almost like a brother”. It is an abbreviation of the English word “brother”.
Also on the list is “fr” which comes from the English “for real”, which means “really”. It is used affirmatively or ironically (“really?”), also meaning “I agree”. Sometimes it appears in the form “fr fr”.
You can also vote for the word “freaky”, which in English means “bizarre, peculiar, a little scary”. This term is used by young people to describe something strange, eccentric, grotesque or beyond aesthetic and social norms. It may refer to a person, style, behavior, situation or Internet content that surprises with something unusual.
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The list again includes the term “GOAT”, meaning someone who is the best in some field, undefeated, unbeatable. The word is an abbreviation of Greatest Of All Time, meaning the champion of all time. Sometimes written as “GOAT”, it also occurs in the English adjectival form “goated” with an analogous meaning and in the Polish diminutive “goacik”.
You can also vote for the word “lowkey”. It means “a little, subtly, quietly, to some extent, subdued”, and is used to express reserved, subdued opinions.
The list once again included “skibidi” – a word without meaning, expressing only the speaker's emotions. It is used to signal – depending on the context – that something is attractive, interesting, funny, weird, twisted, generally cool.
You can vote for the youth word of the year until November 30 at 23 on the PWN website, and the results of the 10th anniversary edition of the PWN plebiscite will be announced in December.
