41
[ fawr-tee-wuhn ]
What does 41 mean?
Teachers and parents, beware: The kids have a new favorite number. 41 (pronounced “forty-one” or “four-one”) is a viral slang term that’s popular with tweens and younger teens.
Like 67 — another number kids can’t get enough of — 41 is largely a nonsensical interjection and inside joke. It can appear in nearly any context and “in the wild,” including in social media captions, classroom chatter, sports scores, or answers to math problems.
Memes about 41 include a hand motion where palms face downward and move alternately back and forth across one’s chest. Observers describe this as a flipped or inverted version of the familiar 67 hand gesture that mimics someone weighing their options.
Where does 41 come from?
The slang use of 41 is thought to come from the “41 Song,” fully titled “41 But I Got 41 Goals” or “41 But I Got 41 Gold.” In the track, rapper Blizzi Boi raps about being 41 years old and having “41” of many different things. The song was first posted to SoundCloud in 2021 and gained traction as a slang term in 2025.
Teachers and parenting writers observed that the rise of 41 followed the pattern of the earlier meme 67, which also came from a rap hook and circulated in classrooms as a playful interruption. Commentators describe 41 as another number lifted from a lyric, repeated in short clips, and turned into a free-floating signal of online awareness.
Examples of 41
If you’re [sic] kids aren’t saying #41 yet, they will be soon! Is it the new #67?
67 vs. 41 IRL: What number is better 67 or 41?
Who uses 41?
Use of 41 is most popular among Gen Alpha, especially middle school and early high school students who spend time on TikTok and similar short-form video platforms. Teachers and parents have said that 41 entered their classrooms after 67 spread widely enough for younger children and adults to copy it, which encouraged teens to shift toward a newer, less widely understood number.
Among kids, 41 functions as a joke that connects them with peers. A student might answer a question with 41, slip 41 into conversation with friends, or add 41 to a caption or comment thread.
NOTE
This is not meant to be a formal definition of 41 like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of 41 that will help our users expand their word mastery.
