Do you have rizz? Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year is rizz, which is derived from the word charisma, meaning a person’s romantic appeal or charm. Many AHS students and staff love that this is the Word of the Year, including sophomore Addie Fruend. Fruend said, “I love it; rizz is me; I am rizz.” English teacher Katie Heddegaard-Moreno said that her students will sometimes incorporate the word rizz into their books and will say that one of the characters has rizz. Weights teacher Matthew Best said that it was a pretty good word and that, “It sounds pretty fire bruh.”

What’s your word of the year? Here is what students and teachers at AHS said: Sophomore Aubrey Winford’s word of the year was “ope.” She uses it in shocked situations, such as if someone would say, “Oh, she’s pregnant,” and Winford would reply with “ope.” When texting her friends, they respond to her with the word “ope,” knowing she would reply with that. 

Senior Claire Pellet and Fruend both said that their Word of the Year was “fire.” Pellet said she can use it in any context by saying, “Wow, that’s fire.” She also said that it is a very “versatile” word. Fruend said that she says the word “fire” all day, every day, and uses it pretty much whenever she can. History teacher Trace Petersen said that with all of the “adolescent slang that’s out there, everything seems to be fire or on fire,” and he doesn’t know why that is. He said that he doesn’t know how students use the word “fire” in the proper context.

Hedegaard-Moreno said her word of the year would have to be “pop-off.” She said she will usually say that when someone “does something cool.” Weights teacher Matthew Best said his Word of the Year is “bruh,” and that he hears his students say this all the time and says it to be “cool.”

Petersen said that his word of the year is “blessed.” With the events going on in his life these past 3 months, he said he feels “truly blessed” that he gets a chance to wake up every day and see the people that bring him joy in his life. He also said, “People are blessed every day by a lot of the good things that happen in the world” and should not take for granted the things they have, because someone might not have those things that others take for granted.

Words are a way to express ourselves, and students at AHS enjoy using words that accomplish the way they feel. From new slang, to words straight out of the dictionary, there are many out there to choose from and many ways to use them. How will you use your word of the year?