#1 in 2025

The SSH term is top slang

The term Sigma has risen from #5 in 2024 to #1 in the 2025 slang rankings.

For the study, the team first used Google Trends to discover the top trending slang terms from 1 Janaury – 29 September. They then used Ahrefs to find how many times each word had been searched.

‘People will hear or read slang terms and search for the meaning of the term (example ‘mogging meaning’),’ the team explained.

‘Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like ‘slang’ or ‘trend’ (example ‘mogging slang’) and similar keyword combinations (example ‘what does demure mean’).

‘We added up 150 search variations of top slang terms.’

Their analysis revealed that ‘sigma’ tops the list with 54,000 searches, followed by ‘gaslighting’ (50,000 searches) – a type of manipulation that makes you doubt your memories and feelings.

Gaslighting was also the most–searched slang word of 2024.

Now, obviously “Sigma” as a slang term is wildly misused and it will soon begin to fade away as all slang terms do. No one has said “mint” for at least 30 years now, as the whole point of slang is to use words to distinguish oneself and one’s age group from one’s predecessors.

Which is why it is paramount to avoid using a younger generation’s slang at all costs, lest one look like a pedo or a policeman going undercover at a high school.

The thing is, unlike most slang terms, Sigma has a very specific meaning and usage that cannot be easily replaced. There is considerable utility to Sigma and all of the SSH-related terms that have nothing to do with their popularity among young status-seeking teens, which means that if, unlike its fellow slang terms, the term survives as a widely-utilized noun over time, that will tend to suggest a wider awareness of the SSH than might be otherwise assumed.

In fact, it’s not impossible that Sigma has been erroneously assumed to be a slang term instead of a widely-adopted concept, because a look at Google Trends indicates that Gamma has actually surpassed it by at least one measure. I would not argue that is the case, but if we start to see other SSH-related terms showing up as popular new neologisms and Sigma persists longer than other terms of the same timeframe, that would be evidence that awareness of the SSH is considerably greater than previously believed.