unspoken rizz

English

Etymology

Attested a few months later than the term rizz (“one's ability to seduce a potential (usually female) love interest”) on its own: first recorded in a tweet written September 1, 2021 by YouTuber Duke Dennis in response to a tweet stating that "flirting with your eyes is an elite skill".

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

unspoken rizz (uncountable)

1. (Internet slang, chiefly TikTok) The ability to apply rizz without speaking a single word; skillfulness at attracting or seducing a potential (usually female) love interest using only body gestures and facial expressions.

   Synonym: charm

   • 2022 April 22, Yasmine Leung, “TikTok: Meaning and origin of rizz explained as slang takes over platform”, in HITC‎^[2], archived from the original on 2022-12-14:

     Unspoken rizz is a "very rare rizz", explains the creator. It's when a man has the ability to attract a woman purely by his physical appearance and he doesn’t need to even talk. Fans of Cenat frequently tease him since his friend and fellow creator, Duke Dennis, has been able to achieve "unspoken rizz", whilst he initially struggled.

   • 2022 May 20, Dave Deiley, “What does "unspoken rizz" mean on TikTok?”, in Dexerto‎^[3], archived from the original on 2022-12-02:

     Here TikTokers are finding that they've failed the 'unspoken rizz' test with hilarious outcomes.

   • [2022 May 24, Nancy Groves, “What Is Unspoken Rizz? 23 Tweets That Might Just Explain It To You”, in HuffPost‎^[4], archived from the original on 2022-10-28:

     Chatup lines are all well and good (or let's be honest, usually bad and awful), but for some people, the silently charming approach to flirting works better. This is nothing new, of course, but it's had recently had a rebrand on social media – and now it seems to be called "unspoken rizz" (or rizz for short).]

   • 2022 November 29, Bruno Cooke, “'Lightskin stare' meaning explained as meme floods TikTok with Rizz, Dog add-ons”, in The Focus‎^[5], archived from the original on 2022-12-02:

     In simple terms, if you're a smooth talker, you've got "rizz" (or "unspoken rizz"), and it's easy enough to see how people might come to apply the meaning of this to memes involving "lightskin stares."

Further reading

• “Rizz / Unspoken Rizz”, in Know Your Meme, launched 2007