Do you have rizz? Or even unspoken rizz? How about W rizz or L rizz?
Rizz is the latest slang term storming TikTok, with thousands of users showing their rizz, or advising their social media followers who have no rizz.
The hashtag rizz has nearly six billion views on TikTok but, if you’re not Gen Z or chronically online, the word may have no meaning whatsoever.
So for the uninitiated, find out below if you have rizz.
What does rizz mean and where did it come from?
Rizz, which some people have speculated is short for charisma, is one’s ability to attract a romantic interest.
It can be defined as an ability to charm or flirt with a potential partner, with pick-up lines and general chat.
@kaicenatsteams W definition! #kai #kaicenat #kailive
♬ original sound - Kai Streams
One Urban Dictionary definition claims that, “Rizz actually comes from the word charisma where, in southern Baltimore, they’ve started to shorten it to ‘rizzma’ (the noun replacing charisma) and to ‘rizz’ (the action of showing charisma)”, while the top definition says that rizz is “another word for spitting game/how good you are with pulling and sustaining b*******.”
Twitch streamer Kai Cenat is credited with popularising the term rizz.
Pete Davidson’s rizz needs to be studied at Harvard https://t.co/xiO5WTGAoP
— ᴅ ʀ ᴇ ᴡ (@FeelLikeDrew) November 28, 2022
In an interview on No Jumper, Cenat explained: “Rizz is when you’re talking to a girl and, at first, s*** is not going your way. It’s looking bad for you, until you spit game and you’re rizzing them up to where s*** starts to go your way.
“You’re so slick with your words and what you’re saying, to where the girl is like, ‘OK, yeah, who is this?!’ After s*** goes your way, you’re like, ‘Yeah, I rizzed her up. I’ve got mad rizz.’”
Cenat added that he and his friends would use rizz among themselves, but it became popular when he started using the word on social media, in 2021, as reported by Complex.
@ysorealjay #rizz #crewof2 #smooth #fypシ #pure
♬ original sound - Ysorealjay
Cenat would even give advice to people on Twitch about how to have rizz, and came up with further terms to explain it, such as W rizz (a win) and L rizz (a loss).
But when the term rizz blew up on TikTok, Cenat stopped using the word. In June 2022, he told the No Jumper presenters: “TikTok butchered that word. They killed it.”
He criticised the interpretations and variations of the term that took on a whole other meaning, such as “unspoken rizz”, which is where someone is so physically attractive they don’t need to try very hard to chat someone up, as rizz is all about how you talk to someone.
Unspoken rizz videos have also blown up on TikTok, with users demonstrating how they would try to pick someone up with just a glance.
