Generation Alpha Slang: 10 Terms That Will Help You Show More Rizz

A new generation has emerged: Generation Alpha. While the official age range for these youngsters is still heavily up for debate (some maintain the generation began in 2012 and runs through 2024, while others argue that it starts in 2010 with the release of the iPad), their shared love of screen time has helped them earn the memorable sobriquet Generation Glass.

Although the oldest among them are just now hitting their early teens, these kids today are already making a big impact on pop culture, especially thanks to their rather, um, interesting language choices. While certain terms come from streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch, a lot of them actually originate from queer culture and African American Vernacular English (AAVE), an English-speaking dialect spoken by Black Americans.

Want to know more? Head to YouTube, cue up “Sticking out Your GYAT for the Rizzler,” and get ready to decipher the meanings behind 10 of the most common pieces of Gen Alpha slang today.

Skibidi 

If you’ve heard a kid ask if someone is skibidi (pronounced “skee-bee-dee”), it likely means that they are asking if someone is evil or up to no good. The term comes from a series of YouTube videos created by Alexey Gerasimov under the username DaFuq!?Boom!, and follows an army of human-headed toilets that are trying to take over the world.

Since the first video was released back in early 2023, Skibidi Toilet has become a viral sensation, inspiring memes and even online games (including Skibidi War - Toilets Attack and other versions). While it usually indicates that something or someone is shady, the meaning can change based on context—especially within the gaming community, where its use has become even more widespread. You may have to muster up the courage to ask an iPad baby what they mean by it.

Rizz

Dubbed Oxford’s Word of the Year in 2023, rizz—usually described as an abbreviation for charisma—suggests “style, charm or attractiveness” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.”

But Gen Alpha has merely adopted the rizz; Gen Z is the group that actually birthed it. Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, who is credited with popularizing it around 2021, claimed in a 2023 interview with Complex that it “came from me and my group of friends ... one person said it, and then another person said it, and then I said it on my Twitch.” According to Cenat, it was never shorthand for charisma (despite what many outlets have suggested), it “just meant game.”

There are some variants on the term, too. A rizzler is a good person or simply charming, while to rizz up means “planning to seduce or chat someone up.”

Fanum Tax

A friend just grabbed a fry off your plate? Congrats, they just enacted the Fanum tax. Like rizz, this idiom originated on Twitch, after streamer Fanum (who is part of Any Means Possible, Cenat’s influencer crew) began “taxing” friends by stealing bites of their food during streams. While it might seem like a bad thing, Fanum claims that it’s not about taking—it’s just about “feeding your friends.”

GYAT

Let’s start this off by describing how you actually say GYAT so you don’t sound skibidi to the Generation Glass crowd the next time you try and use it. The word sounds like “squat” or “caught” and is an acronym for Girl Your Ass Thicc, although it also gets used as an abbreviation for goddamn. You may even see it spelled with multiple t’s, so it looks like gyatt. If you’re on the receiving end of this term, you don’t have to take it as a compliment about your booty, but it is probably meant as one—or as an overall expression of excitement and enthusiasm.

Ratio’d

Folks who have received more dislikes or comments on a social media post than likes and retweets are said to have been ratio'd. The term hit the Gen Alpha slang waves around 2017, when Jason Chaffetz, chairman for the House Oversight Committee, made a post on X (formerly Twitter) that received far more replies than retweets. An X user, @85mf, then tweeted a screenshot of Chaffetz’s post, noting: “Nothing on this site makes me happier than reply-to-RT ratios like this. That is the ratio of someone who fuuuuucked up.” It generally suggests that whatever you or someone else just posted is controversial.

Cap and No Cap

To cap can mean you’re lying about something or exaggerating, but if someone uses no cap after telling you a story or important piece of information, it means they’re neither lying nor exaggerating.

These two terms are also part of Gen Z slang, but the earliest mentions go back to the late 19th century. According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, capping is defined as the “act of ensnaring a victim into a confidence game.” Dictionary.com notes that by 1900, it was part of AAVE and meant “to brag, exaggerate, or to lie” about something.

By the 1980s, cap/no cap made its way over to hip-hop thanks to rappers like Too Short and Willie D, and has grown even more popular in recent years due to songs like “Just in Case” by Chief Keef and Gino Marley, and Young Thug and Future’s 2017 track, “No Cap.”

Goated

Most of us are familiar with the meaning behind GOAT, an acronym for greatest of all time. It’s a title typically only bestowed on incredible athletes like Serena Williams, Simone Biles, or LeBron James who have dominated in their respective sports. Generation Alpha has now transformed it into a verb, so when something is goated, it means it’s become the greatest of all time.

Big Yikes

Big yikes means exactly what you think it does: It’s another way of saying that something is awkward, cringe-inducing, or embarrassing. It’s been around since about 2010, which means it’s part of Millennial slang too (its own kind of big yikes if you’re an iPad kid). But Gen Alpha is keeping the idiom going strong.

Sigma Male

If you’re on TikTok, you’ve probably heard about sigma males. The label refers to the archetype of a self-reliant lone wolf who sets himself apart from the crowd because he's neither alpha (the “most dominant, powerful, or assertive man in a particular group,” according to Dictionary.com) nor beta (a man seen as “weak, mild-mannered, and unimpressive”). Instead, the sigma male just confidently does his own thing.

While this might seem okay in theory, it’s received pushback from some critics, who describe it as another form of toxic masculinity and criticize its association with Patrick Bateman, the protagonist of American Psycho. Still, hasn’t stopped some Gen Alpha kids from latching onto the concept, at least online.

It’s Giving

The phrase it's giving expresses the vibes someone is giving off. Although Gen Alpha has embraced this slang, its roots go back to the 1980s and New York City’s drag ballroom scene.

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