WTF Does Sigma Mean?! A Teacher Explains What Your Kid Is Saying

<div><img src="https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/68010db41800001b0086e3cc.jpg?ops=scalefit_630_noupscale" alt="" data-caption="" data-credit-link-back="" data-credit="EMS-FORSTER-PRODUCTIONS via Getty Images" /></div><div class="content-list-component text"><p>If you’ve spent any time with teens recently you might have heard them describe something as “sigma”, or even exclaim: <em>“What the sigma?!”</em></p><p>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...</p><h2><strong>Sigma actually has origins in the manosphere</strong></h2><p>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”, <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/love-sex/a63686129/sigma-male/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to Cosmopolitan.</a></p><p>Since then, sigma has been used to describe a certain type of guy.</p><p>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.</p><p><a href="https://medium.com/modernidentities/alphas-betas-omegas-gammas-sigmas-1a183c3b86f5#:~:text=Male%20Modals,A%20victim%20of%20life." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A</a><a href="https://medium.com/modernidentities/alphas-betas-omegas-gammas-sigmas-1a183c3b86f5#:~:text=Male%20Modals,A%20victim%20of%20life." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">s Niall Stewart explains in a piece for Medium</a> they are “likeable and confident,