If you’ve spent any time with teens recently you might have heard them describe something as “sigma”, or even exclaim: “What the sigma?!”

Confused about what it might mean, or why kids are so obsessed with saying it? Here’s a quick breakdown of where the word has come from...

Sigma actually has origins in the manosphere

Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. However in 2010, “the ‘sigma male’ term was coined by the far-right writer Theodore Robert Beale as a counterpoint to the alpha/beta male hierarchy”, according to Cosmopolitan.

Since then, sigma has been used to describe a certain type of guy.

The alpha/beta hierarchy refers to some men being more dominant (alphas) and others being more submissive (betas). Then there is supposedly a third type of male: sigma.

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