# What does rizz mean?

Canonical: https://postmesh.app/glossary/rizz

By PostMesh team. Published 2026-10-31; updated 2026-10-31.

Rizz is slang for charm or game, especially the ability to flirt and attract a romantic partner. Someone with rizz is smooth and confident. It also works as a verb: to rizz someone up means to flirt with them successfully. Oxford named it its Word of the Year for 2023.

## What rizz means

Rizz is the ability to charm people, and most of the time it means charming someone you're into. If you can start a conversation with a stranger and leave with their number, you have rizz. If you freeze up and say something strange, you don't. Oxford University Press defines it in terms of style, charm and attractiveness, and above all the power to draw in a partner.

It shows up in a few grammatical forms. As a noun, you have rizz, lack rizz or have "no rizz." As a verb, you rizz someone up, which Oxford treats as successfully flirting with them. Someone who's especially good at it gets called a rizzler. The tone is almost always playful. Calling a friend's opening line "crazy rizz" is a compliment, and telling someone they have "negative rizz" is teasing, not a real insult.

Rizz has also stretched beyond dating. People say a salesperson, a teacher or even a dog has rizz when they win people over without trying hard. The core idea stays the same: an easy, natural pull on other people.

## Where rizz comes from

Rizz grew out of livestreaming. Know Your Meme traces it to streams in May 2021 where Kai Cenat, a streamer from the Bronx, and fellow creator Silky held live e-dates and rated each other's flirting. It notes the word had circulated in New York slang before that, without dating the earlier use. A definition for rizz appears on Urban Dictionary from June 1, 2021, and Know Your Meme says Cenat first wrote the word online in a tweet on June 11, 2021. By November 2021 he had uploaded a video titled "Kai Cenat Opens Rizz Academy," a running bit where he and friends judged each other's game.

Cenat has said the word came from his circle back home and meant game. NPR reported that he doesn't see it as short for charisma. Oxford's lexicographers take a different view. They believe rizz is clipped from the middle of "charisma," which they note is an unusual way to form a word, comparable to how "fridge" comes from "refrigerator." Both accounts can be true at once: a word can start as friend-group slang and still sound like a piece of a longer word to everyone else.

### How it spread to TikTok

From Twitch and YouTube clips, rizz moved to TikTok. Know Your Meme points to an April 2022 TikTok where a creator tested his "unspoken rizz" on a beach, flirting with only facial expressions, as a turning point. Through late 2022, spinoffs like negative rizz and nicknames like the Rizzler trended there. NBC News reported that the rizz hashtag on TikTok had passed 36 billion views by late 2023.

### Tom Holland and the 2023 peak

In June 2023, actor Tom Holland was asked about his rizz in a widely shared interview and said he had limited rizz. Oxford cites that moment in its Word of the Year write-up and says use of the word in its corpus rose sharply through 2023, peaking that June. NBC News also points to a viral TikTok the same month about youth football player Baby Gronk meeting gymnast Livvy Dunne, which pushed the word into even more feeds.

- May 2021: Kai Cenat and Silky rate each other's flirting on live streams
- Jun 2021: Rizz appears on Urban Dictionary and in Cenat's tweets
- Nov 2021: Cenat's Rizz Academy video makes it a running bit
- Apr 2022: Unspoken rizz videos carry the word across TikTok
- Jun 2023: Tom Holland's interview pushes rizz to a usage peak
- Dec 4, 2023: Oxford names rizz its Word of the Year

*Dates from Know Your Meme, Oxford University Press and NBC News.*

## Why Oxford picked rizz as its Word of the Year

Oxford University Press announced rizz as its 2023 Word of the Year on December 4, 2023. It started with a shortlist of eight words, let the public vote in head-to-head rounds, and had its language experts make the final call using the votes, commentary and usage data. More than 32,000 votes were cast, according to Oxford Languages. The other finalists were Swiftie, situationship and prompt, and the shortlist also included beige flag, de-influencing, heat dome and parasocial.

Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, contrasted it with 2022's winner, goblin mode, and suggested rizz fit a year when people were opening up again. He also noted that words born in internet culture are increasingly part of everyday speech. NBC News reported that Merriam-Webster had added rizz to its dictionary a few months earlier, in September 2023.

## Rizz phrases you'll see

Rizz rarely travels alone. Most of the time it comes with a modifier that tells you how good or bad the flirting was.

| Phrase | What it means | Tone |
| --- | --- | --- |
| W rizz | Great flirting, a win | Praise |
| L rizz | Flirting that flopped, a loss | Teasing |
| Unspoken rizz | Charm without words, just a look or a nod | Admiring, often ironic |
| Negative rizz | So awkward it pushes people away | Roasting |
| Rizz someone up | Flirt with someone and win them over | Neutral to playful |
| Rizzler | A person with a lot of rizz | Joking praise |
| No rizz | Can't flirt at all | Self-deprecating or teasing |

**W rizz**
- The line worked
- Smooth and confident
- Said as a compliment

**Unspoken rizz**
- No words needed
- A look, a smile, a nod
- Often used ironically

**Negative rizz**
- The line backfired
- Awkward or cringe
- Friendly roasting

## How people use rizz on social media

On TikTok, rizz is a whole genre. People post their best and worst pickup lines, rate strangers' attempts and stitch clips of famously smooth moments. In comments it's a one-word verdict: "the rizz is unmatched" or "bro has zero rizz." On Instagram it shows up in Reels captions and in friends' comments under a good photo. On X, it's often used to judge celebrities and athletes. On LinkedIn you'll occasionally see it used half-jokingly about salespeople or recruiters, though it reads as very casual there.

A few made-up examples of how it sounds:

- A comment under a first-date story: "the rizz on this man is illegal"
- A friend in a group chat: "she said yes?? W rizz"
- A caption on a fail video: "tried to rizz her up and asked if she likes rocks"
- A self-roast in a DM: "I have negative rizz, I just said 'you too' when the waiter said enjoy your meal"
- A comment on a dog video: "this dog has more rizz than me"
- A joke about a coworker: "he rizzed the client into a two-year contract"

If you want help wording a reply under someone's post, the [Instagram comment generator](/tools/instagram-comment-generator) can draft a few options, and you can keep the playful ones. For more words from the same corner of the internet, see [simp](/glossary/simp), [sigma](/glossary/sigma) and [aura](/glossary/aura).

## How to reply when someone says you have rizz

Being told you have rizz is a compliment, so the easy move is to take it. "Appreciate it" or a joking "I know" both work. If someone says you have no rizz, they're almost always teasing, and a self-aware reply lands better than defending yourself. If a stranger opens with "you've got rizz" in your DMs, treat it like any other flirty opener: reply if you're interested, ignore it if you're not.

**Someone mentioned your rizz. How do you answer?**
- "W rizz" from a friend → Take the win. A thanks or a laughing reply is plenty.
- "You have no rizz" → They're teasing. Agree and exaggerate it, or roast them back.
- A stranger flirting in DMs → Reply only if you want to keep talking. No answer is also an answer.
- A coworker joking about a sale → Laugh it off and move on. Don't make it a running bit at work.

## When not to use rizz

Rizz is built around flirting, so be careful where you point it. Saying a coworker, client or student has rizz can sound like a comment on their attractiveness, even if you mean their people skills. In those settings, words like charming or persuasive say the same thing without the romantic edge.

On brand accounts, rizz has been used so heavily since 2023 that it can feel dated, and a company calling its own product rizz-worthy tends to read as trying too hard. It can work in a reply to a fan, where the joke is shared. It works less well in an ad or a product announcement. And as with most slang, people outside the culture may not know it, so don't rely on it to carry the meaning of an important message.

**Rizz fits when**
- [ ] You're joking with friends who use it
- [ ] You're commenting on a dating, flirting or pickup-line video
- [ ] Your brand voice is already casual and you're replying to a fan
- [ ] Nobody could read it as a comment on a colleague's looks

Rizz sits next to other dating slang like [delulu](/glossary/delulu), being too hopeful about a crush, and [the ick](/glossary/ick), the moment attraction disappears. If you post dating or relationship content on TikTok, our guide on [scheduling TikTok videos](/blog/how-to-schedule-tiktok-videos) explains how to queue posts for the hours your viewers are online.

## Questions

### Is rizz short for charisma?

Oxford believes so and describes it as clipped from the middle of the word. Kai Cenat, who popularized it, has said it isn't short for anything to him and simply meant game.

### What does W rizz mean?

W stands for win, so W rizz means flirting that worked. L rizz is the opposite, a loss.

### What is unspoken rizz?

It's charm that works without saying anything, like a look, a nod or a raised eyebrow. People often use it ironically in videos where the silent move is obviously ridiculous.

### Who invented rizz?

No single person invented it, but streamer Kai Cenat is widely credited with popularizing it from 2021. Know Your Meme notes the word had some earlier use in New York slang.

### Is rizz a real word?

Yes. Oxford named it Word of the Year for 2023, and NBC News reported that Merriam-Webster added it to its dictionary in September 2023.

### What does it mean to rizz someone up?

It means flirting with someone and winning them over. Oxford describes the verb as winning someone over romantically.

## Related terms

- [Simp](https://postmesh.app/glossary/simp)

- [Sigma](https://postmesh.app/glossary/sigma)

- [Aura](https://postmesh.app/glossary/aura)

- [Delulu](https://postmesh.app/glossary/delulu)

- [Ick](https://postmesh.app/glossary/ick)

- [Gyat](https://postmesh.app/glossary/gyat)

## Sources

- [Oxford University Press: Rizz crowned Oxford Word of the Year 2023](https://corp.oup.com/news/rizz-crowned-oxford-word-of-the-year-2023/)

- [Oxford Languages: Word of the Year 2023](https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2023/)

- [Know Your Meme: Rizz](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rizz)

- [NBC News: Oxford's got 'rizz'](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/what-rizz-means-oxford-word-year-2023-rcna127911)

- [NPR via WFAE: Rizz is Oxford's word of the year for 2023](https://www.wfae.org/2023-12-04/rizz-is-oxfords-word-of-the-year-for-2023-do-you-have-it)