What Does "Rizz" Really Mean? (2024)

Rizz means “the gift or ability to charm a potential love interest or sexual partner.”

The term, coined initially by internet personality Kai Cenat, became a famous bit of slang on TikTok, spawning many derivative words and phrases, like rizz you up and unspoken rizz, acting as a sort of viral sensation or meme.

Rizz is believed to be a phonetic shortening of charisma, which means “a special ability to fascinate and capture the attention of others.” Charisma has multiple uses, one of which describes the ability to charm or seduce someone, which is the definition that rizz leans most heavily into.

As a slang term, rizz can be used in various informal ways with different meanings.

• As a verb, rizz means “to charm or intrigue a love interest or sexual partner through words and behavior”
• Rizzing someone often means that you could persuade them to give you a chance romantically or sexually or make them interested in you despite initial hesitation.
• The phrase rizz up is another verb form of the term meaning “to apply charm to someone by talking to them”

Rizz and rizz up are usually used in reference to a heterosexual man flirting with a heterosexual woman. But, both can be used similarly to refer to the charming of a person of any gender or sexuality.

The first records of rizz online are in Twitch and YouTube clips from content creator Kai Cenat, who is known for his comedy and vlogging content.

Cenat claims that the term was just something that he and his friends came up with as a joke, but once he started using it on his Twitch streams, which regularly pull in well over 60,000 viewers, it started to gain usage across the internet and in real life.

Although the rizz meme has been used on the internet since 2021, it truly started to gain use in the summer of 2022, and by the winter, rizz was one of the most searched terms on Google and on TikTok.

A TikTok filter named the Rizz Meter emerged in the summer of 2022, which would randomly assign users a random “rizz score” or title. Some titles, including “counterfeit rizz” and “baby rizz,” weren’t made with any particular meaning but just silly-sounding names.

These titles started a trend of creating nicknames containing the word rizz for people that you could describe as exceptionally rizzy. The most popular of these was rizz god.

Usually, rizz is used positively, implying that the person doing the rizzing has charisma. But, rizz is sometimes broken into two categories, again coined by Kai Cenat: W rizz and L rizz.

The W in W rizz stands for “win,” implying that flirting with someone is a win/loss scenario. If the person making the advance gets the attention of their romantic or sexual interest, you can say they have W rizz. Sometimes, W rizz is spoken as the shortening “dub rizz.”

The L in L rizz stands for loss, as you might’ve expected. L rizz is the aura of someone who fails to interest someone else or who comes off as odd due to their rizz attempts.

It is worth noting that W and L rizz are often used ironically.

A rizz god or rizz lord exhibits mass amounts of rizz and is incredibly successful in their attempts to flirt.

Rizz god is often used as a compliment to describe someone after they act successfully, usually involving success in landing a sexual or romantic interest.

Another slang term, game, means “the ability to seduce someone.”

Game and rizz effectively have the same meaning. The difference is that game sets up flirting with someone as a game, or something that involves strategy, winning, and losing.

Rizz, on the other hand, can be used plainly as a synonym for charisma. Although, W rizz and L rizz are akin to this same game scenario.

Below are some of the most popular rizz-based nicknames and how they’re used. (Honestly, though, you can really use them to mean whatever you like).

• Rizzler- Someone with impeccable rizz; named after The Riddler
• Rizzard of Oz- Someone whose rizz is so powerful it could be described as magic
• Rizzly Bear- Someone who is very outgoing or loud in their rizz attempts
  • Alternatively, this can be someone with a lot of hair or facial hair that has W rizz
• William Rizzspeare- Someone who is exceptionally well-spoken or poetic in their rizz attempts
• Micky Mouse Rizzhouse- A collection of people with impeccable rizz

And here are some examples of rizz in a sentence:

• Whenever I try to rizz someone up, I just make a fool of myself.
• This guy had so much unspoken rizz; I swear all he had to do was look at her.
• She doesn’t have much rizz, so wish her luck tonight.
• She was spitting game and had so much rizz it was impressive.
• Tonight I’m aiming to be a rizz god at the party.
• I’m feeling lonely. Anyone you think I should rizz up?