Rizz

Origin

Rizz is slang for charm or skill at flirting — a clipped form of “charisma” taken from the middle of the word. It is widely credited to Bronx-raised Twitch and YouTube streamer Kai Cenat, who used it with friends and on stream around 2021-2022 to mean the ability to attract a romantic partner. Cenat has said it “started with me and a few of my friends from back home,” and that to him the word isn’t really short for anything. With more than 8 million Twitch followers — and, around the same time, a run of record-breaking subscriber counts on the platform — his community carried it straight onto TikTok.

What it means / how it’s used

To “have rizz” is to be smooth or good at flirting. The grammar multiplied quickly: “W rizz” (a win) describes a slick approach, “L rizz” (a loss) an awkward flop, “unspoken rizz” is attracting someone without saying a word, and a “rizzler” is a person with elite game. It works as both noun and verb — “he rizzed her up.” Gen Alpha adopted it so heavily that teachers and parents began using it ironically. It also anchored the graded “rizz-line” format, in which someone acts out a corny pickup attempt and viewers score it a W or an L, and it stretched well beyond flirting into all-purpose charm — hence spin-offs like “baby rizz,” “Costco rizz” and “unspoken rizz.”

How it spread

The term went from stream slang to mainstream in about two years. Usage spiked in June 2023 after actor Tom Holland told BuzzFeed Celeb he had “no rizz whatsoever,” saying he preferred to play “the long game” — a nod to falling for Zendaya on set — and the clip went viral. Months later, Oxford University Press named “rizz” its 2023 Word of the Year, chosen via a public vote of more than 32,000 people from a shortlist of eight that also included “Swiftie” and “situationship,” and defined it as “style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.”

Notable examples & variations

• The “W rizz / L rizz” grading format, where a corny pickup line is scored a win or a loss.
• Niche spin-offs like “Costco rizz,” “unspoken rizz” and the “Rizzler” persona.
• The viral Tom Holland “no rizz” interview, which pushed the word into entertainment headlines.
• Its 2023 Oxford Word of the Year win, which carried it into mainstream news worldwide.

Legacy / cultural impact

Rizz is a defining term of early-2020s internet English — a piece of streamer slang that a dictionary crowned Word of the Year within roughly two years, cementing how quickly Gen Z and Gen Alpha vocabulary now travels from Twitch chat to the Oxford press release.