In 2025, “6-7” (pronounced six-seven) had a cultural moment. The irreverent slang term was named Word of the Year by Dictionary.com and also took top honors as Informal Word of the Year from the American Dialect Society.
If you’re not a teenager, the meaning and purpose of “6-7” might feel elusive. That’s part of the point. As linguists often note, slang like this carries social meaning: it signals who’s “in” and who’s not, drawing subtle lines between insiders and outsiders.
With “6-7” on the rise, we’ve heard from several listeners curious about a much older, number-based expression: “at sixes and sevens.” Unlike "6-7," this phrase has a well-established meaning. It describes a state of confusion, disorder, or disagreement.
The origin of "at sixes and sevens" goes back decades. An early form, "to set on six and seven," came from a very old dice game called Hazard. In that context, it meant to risk one's money on the two highest numbers. If you've ever seen a set of dice though, you know that the two highest numbers are five and six. It's thought that "to set on six and seven" could be a misunderstanding of the French "to set on cinque and sice." It also could've just been a joke that stuck.
This phrase appears as early as the 1370s in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote about setting “the world on six and seven.” Later, William Shakespeare used a similar phrase in Richard II: “All is uneven, and everything is left at six and seven.” By the 1600s, the now-familiar plural form, “at sixes and sevens," had emerged.
Today, many of us can use "at sixes and sevens" to refer to being in a state of confusion or at loose ends. Speaking of loose ends, we also talked about the phrase "at loose ends" this week. To hear about that, listen to the audio above.
