Germany's 2026 Youth Word Shortlist Highlights Trending Slang

Each year, German speakers aged 11 to 20 vote for the country's "Jugendwort des Jahres" (Youth Word of the Year). For 2026, a shortlist of ten terms has been published, with a voting period of three weeks. The most frequently mentioned term, the numeric sequence "67," originated on TikTok and spread through basketball memes and the rap song "Doot Doot (67)" by Skrilla. Other leading candidates include "Crashout" (losing one's temper), "Digga" (a versatile address akin to "bro"), "Du bist gut genug" (a phrase from the viral Kitschkrieg song featuring Shirin David), and "Gute Käse" (used to praise something as very good). The Langenscheidt publishing house, which oversees the selection, excluded one popular term from the final round, though the reason was not disclosed. The shortlist reflects the influence of social media platforms, especially TikTok, on contemporary German youth language.