What started as a war between man toilets and cyborgs just rewrote the Cambridge Dictionary

If you’ve spent even a little time around members of the younger generation, you’ve probably noticed they love throwing the linguistic jumble that is “Skibidi” around like it’s an actual word. Well, guess what? Now it is.

You read that right: Skibibi, alongside a plethora of other Internet-born sayings, is now an official word in the English language thanks to the latest update to the Cambridge Dictionary. If you’re asking yourself, “How the hell did we get here?”, you’re in good company.

Like it or not, Skibidi Toilet has forever changed the English language

Anyone even remotely active on the Internet has probably heard of Skibidi Toilet. Created by Alexey Gerasimov, aka DaFuq!?Boom! Skibidi Toilet follows (and I’m being completely serious right now) a war between a horde of singing, human-headed toilets bent on global domination and an army of appliance-headed cyborgs fighting to save the world. It’s weird, it’s surprisingly well-animated, and it’s taken the world by storm.

Since its launch in 2023, Skibidi Toilet has become an Internet phenomenon of unparalleled proportions. It’s got an official toy line, a skin in Fortnite , and an upcoming film adaptation helmed by Michael “if it can explode, it will explode” Bay. The first half of its name has also become one of Generation Alpha’s favorite shibboleths.

As a substitute teacher, I hear kids talk a lot, and I can’t count how many times I’ve heard them use “Skibidi” in a complete sentence. It’s usually used as an adjective, meant to emphasize how cool whatever the kids are talking about is. This, of course, brings us back to the Cambridge Dictionary. It’s like the water in a flushing toilet, you see; it cycles back into itself.

Over the last year, the Cambridge Dictionary folded skibidi and over 6,000 other words into its library, formally inducting them into the English language. Many of these words, skibidi included, were born on social media, reflecting the many ways the Internet has changed how we speak to each other. Colin McIntosh, Cambridge’s Dictionary Lexical Program Manager, admitted as much while speaking to the Rolling Stone.

Internet Culture is changing the English language, and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary.

Wanna know what the Cambridge Dictionary has to say about skibidi as a word? Here’s a link to skibidi’s official dictionary page. Take a look if you dare.