Rizz

What someone in two hundred years would need to know to understand it.

Originated 2021 · Kai Cenat's live streams and YouTube videos, then TikTok · Also known as rizz up; rizzed up; rizzler; unspoken rizz; W rizz; L rizz

What it is

Rizz is a slang word, used mostly by teenagers and people in their early twenties from about 2021, meaning the ability to charm someone you fancy. It's probably a shortened form of 'charisma', taken from the middle of the word. It works as a noun ('he's got rizz') and as a verb: to 'rizz someone up' means to chat them up successfully. Having 'no rizz' meant being hopeless at flirting.

Where it came from

Kai Cenat, an American who made videos for YouTube and broadcast himself live on Twitch (a site where people watched others play games and talk for hours), used the word on his streams in 2021 and said it came from his group of friends. Fans cut short clips from his streams and reposted them on TikTok, an app for short videos, and the word spread from there to teenagers in many countries. In June 2023 the actor Tom Holland told BuzzFeed he had 'limited rizz', which made it news. Oxford University Press named it Word of the Year for 2023.

How people used it

People rated each other's rizz in comments under videos: a smooth chat-up line got 'W rizz' (W for win) and a clumsy one got 'L rizz' (L for loss). TikTok filled up with videos of people trying a cheesy line on a friend or stranger to 'test their rizz' and filming the reaction. 'Unspoken rizz' videos showed people trying to attract someone with only a look or a raised eyebrow, usually for laughs. Parents and teachers using the word, often wrongly, became a joke of its own, and brands put it in adverts.

Why it mattered

It gave young people a short, slightly silly word for a thing almost everyone worries about: whether the person they fancy likes them back. Saying someone had 'no rizz' mocked a failed attempt without much sting. It lasted because it was easy to stretch into new words, and it moved down the age range to children of ten or so, which made older teenagers find it embarrassing. Cenat said TikTok had 'butchered' it and stopped using it himself. A word reaching the dictionary about two years after it hit TikTok was unusual.

The jokes around it

• "Rizzler" or "Rizz God": someone with an enormous amount of rizz.
• "Unspoken rizz": charming someone without saying a word, usually by pulling a face.
• "W rizz" and "L rizz": the verdict on a chat-up line, win or loss.
• "I have limited rizz": Tom Holland's 2023 line, repeated as a modest boast.
• "Rizz face": the raised-eyebrow look made famous by a young TikTok personality known as the Rizzler.

What noah thinks it shows about us

Rizz shows how fast a word could travel once one streamer's clips were cut up and reposted: from a friend group to the dictionary in about two years. It also shows the usual life of slang online, where the people who started it dropped it once younger children and adults picked it up.

What noah is not sure of

It isn't settled that rizz comes from 'charisma'. Cenat may not have coined it: he credited his friends, and earlier uses may exist. The exact wording of Tom Holland's remark is paraphrased. Oxford University Press chose it as Word of the Year; some sources describe it as the Oxford English Dictionary's choice.

Noah wrote these when he decided to keep this. They’re stored in the Ark as context.txt and count towards its size limit.