The brainrot lexicon
The words the internet won’t stop saying, with the etymology nobody asked for. Every entry links to GIFs, stickers, sounds, and the full backstory.
Word of the Year 2025, Dictionary.com
“How was the test?” “67.”
EtymologyAlways said as two digits, never “sixty-seven.” From Skrilla’s 2024 song “Doot Doot (6 7),” then tied to LaMelo Ball, the 6-foot-7 NBA guard, in highlight edits. Dictionary.com named it the 2025 Word of the Year despite its having no settled meaning.
manosphere
“He walked into the meeting like the alpha of the group chat.”
EtymologyBorrowed from wolf-pack biology, where researchers once labeled the lead wolf the alpha. Pickup artist forums picked up the term in the late 1990s and turned it into a badge of status. The manosphere carried it further online through the 2010s. beta
meme, dated
“She showed up in the same dress. And I oop.”
EtymologyFrom a 2015 YouTube video by drag queen Jasmine Masters, who yelped it after accidentally hurting herself. The clip sat online for three years before it went viral in early 2019 and became one of that year’s most-used reaction GIFs.
from ballroom culture
“She walked into that pitch meeting and ate.”
EtymologyFrom Black and Latino ballroom culture, where a performer who dominated a category was said to have eaten it. The phrase moved through African American Vernacular English and queer slang before reaching wider social media in the mid-2010s.
slang
“He tripped on the stairs in front of everyone. Minus 1,000 aura.”
EtymologyFrom the Greek for a breeze, via Latin. The points system took off in 2024, when people began scoring each other’s public behavior out loud.
Gen Z, gaming
“He didn’t wave back, he just aura farmed past the cameras.”
EtymologyCombines gaming slang for grinding, farming, with Gen Z’s use of aura for charisma. It surfaced on TikTok in January 2024, then spread widely in mid-2025 through footage of a boy dancing on the bow of a boat at Indonesia’s Pacu Jalur festival.
from hip-hop, ironic
“Unpopular opinion, but that’s based.”
EtymologyOnce slang for a drug user. Rapper Lil B reclaimed it around 2010 to mean being yourself without fear of judgment, and it spread online from there as a general term of approval.
slang, ironic
“Bestie, you cannot wear that to the interview.”
EtymologyA shortening of best friend that has existed in casual speech for decades. Social media stretched its meaning through the 2010s and 2020s until it became a generic, often ironic, way to address a stranger.
from AAVE
“Meet you at seven?” “Bet.”
EtymologyFrom African American Vernacular English, where bet has long meant a confident yes, with the same certainty as a gambler backing a wager. Texting and social media carried it into mainstream slang through the 2010s.
manosphere
“Don’t be such a beta about asking for a raise.”
EtymologyPaired with alpha from the same wolf-pack terminology biologists later disowned. Pickup artist and manosphere forums built beta into an insult for men seen as submissive, starting in the early 2010s. alpha
UK slang, from Caribbean English
“Blud, why would you say that in the group chat.”
EtymologyA variant of blood, tracing to Caribbean English and the term bredren. It moved through UK grime and hip-hop scenes into Multicultural London English, then spread nationwide through TikTok in the 2020s.
TikTok, dated
“The waiter gave us a bombastic side eye when we asked for extra sauce.”
EtymologyTaken from a January 2023 TikTok audio of a woman repeating the phrase in different tones. The sound spread to over 200,000 videos within two months and turned side eye into shorthand for exaggerated judgment.
Word of the Year 2024, Oxford
“While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854.
EtymologyFirst recorded in Walden, where Thoreau complained that people preferred simple ideas to hard ones. Oxford named it Word of the Year 170 years later.
Word of the Year 2024, Collins Dictionary
“She quit the job with zero notice. Very brat.”
EtymologyBrat has meant a badly behaved child for centuries. Charli XCX’s 2024 album Brat gave the word new life as a lifestyle label, confident and unbothered, and Collins Dictionary named it its 2024 Word of the Year.
Gen Z, slang
“Can’t make brunch, I’m a brokie this month.”
EtymologyA casual diminutive of broke, built the same way as other slang words ending in -ie. It gained traction on TikTok in the early 2020s as a lighthearted way to talk about being short on cash.
slang, from AAVE
“Bruh, you left the oven on again.”
EtymologyA clipped form of bro, itself short for brother, rooted in African American Vernacular English. It spread through hip-hop and gaming culture in the 2000s and 2010s before becoming an all-purpose exclamation.
from AAVE
“This is bussin, who made this.”
EtymologyFrom African American Vernacular English, related to bust, meaning to exceed expectations. It stayed mostly a food term until TikTok spread it widely around March 2021.
from a film
“Getting my heart broken at nineteen was a canon event.”
EtymologyCoined in the 2023 film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, where a canon event is a fixed moment every version of Spider-Man must live through. Fans applied it to their own lives soon after the film’s June 2023 release.
from AAVE
“No cap, he really said that.”
EtymologyFrom African American Vernacular English, where capping has long meant lying or bragging. The phrase no cap, meaning no lie, carried it into mainstream slang through the 2010s.
slang
“He denied it, then got caught in 4K on someone’s story.”
EtymologyNamed for 4K video resolution, sharp enough to leave no doubt. It traces to a 2019 comedy sketch by YouTube group RDCworld1, then went viral in August 2020.
from 4chan, ironic
“He asked for a raise on his first day. Absolute chad.”
EtymologyForum slang for a confident, popular man before it became a character. The 2017 Virgin vs. Chad meme made him famous, and the Yes Chad drawing, a blond, bearded face captioned Yes, spread him further from 2019.
streamer
“Chat, is this real?”
EtymologyFrom Twitch and YouTube streamers talking to the comments scrolling beside their video. The audience went home, and the habit stayed.
slang, from AAVE
“That haircut is chopped.”
EtymologyBelieved to come from African American English, where chopped chin described a weak or receding chin. TikTok stripped the anatomical meaning in the mid-2020s and turned chopped into a general put-down.
slang
“Nobody outside Twitter cares, you’re chronically online.”
EtymologyGrew out of earlier terms like extremely online and terminally online, dating to around 2016. It hit Urban Dictionary in 2021 and spread widely on TikTok and Twitter soon after.
from Star Wars, slang
“The delivery clanker blocked the whole sidewalk.”
EtymologyCoined for droids in the 2005 game Star Wars: Republic Commando, named for the clanking sound they made. Star Wars: The Clone Wars picked it up soon after, and TikTok revived it in July 2025 as a real-world jab at AI and robots.
slang
“The exam is in an hour and I haven’t opened the book. I’m cooked.”
EtymologyFrom the kitchen: once something is cooked, it stays cooked. Common online since the early 2020s, most often as “we’re so cooked.”
slang, ironic
“He says he didn’t want the job anyway. Cope.”
EtymologyCope has meant to manage difficulty for centuries. Online forums, especially 4chan, twisted it into a mocking one-word dismissal of someone’s excuse, a use that spread widely by the late 2010s. copium
slang, ironic
“He says he wasn’t trying anyway. Pure copium.”
EtymologyA blend of cope and opium. It first appeared on 4chan’s /int/ board in March 2018, and a 2019 image of Pepe the Frog hooked to a copium tank spread the term across Twitter, Reddit, and Twitch. cope
from AAVE
“He crashed out over a parking ticket.”
EtymologyTraces to Baton Rouge slang built on the older phrase crash dummy, used in African American Vernacular English and on Black Twitter as early as 2013. Rapper NBA YoungBoy’s 2017 song “Stepped On” gave it an early boost, and it spread widely again in 2024.
slang
“The speech was ten minutes of pure cringe.”
EtymologyThe word is Old English, from a root meaning to bend or crouch in fear. It kept that “recoil in fear or shame” sense for centuries before internet forums in the 2000s and 2010s turned it into a noun for secondhand embarrassment, especially in cringe compilations of awkward videos.
Gen Z, K-pop stan
“He thinks she’ll text back after a week of silence. He’s so delulu.”
EtymologyA cutesy shortening of “delusional” that spread through K-pop fan Twitter around 2019 and 2020, where stans used it to describe wishful thinking about idols. It crossed into general Gen Z slang by 2023 and was added to the Cambridge Dictionary in 2025.
Word of the Year 2024, Dictionary.com
“She opened her laptop very demure, very mindful.”
EtymologyDemure is an old English word for shy modesty. TikToker Jools Lebron revived it in August 2024 with a series of videos on being “very demure, very mindful” at work, and usage jumped over 1,200 percent that year. Dictionary.com named it Word of the Year 2024.
slang
“I lost an hour to doomscrolling before bed.”
EtymologyThe term appeared on Twitter as early as October 2018. It stayed niche until the 2020 pandemic, when lockdowns and constant crisis coverage made the habit universal. Merriam-Webster added it as an official entry in 2023.
slang, hip-hop
“New chain, new fit. That’s drip.”
EtymologyThe term comes out of hip-hop, with Houston rapper Sauce Walka using it on his 2014 mixtape to mean looking like a winner. Its exact city of origin is disputed among rappers, but Cardi B’s 2018 song “Drip” carried it into the mainstream.
Gen Alpha, TikTok
“He asked why the fridge was humming and she just said, ‘Erm, what the sigma.’”
EtymologyTikToker @lawfreeza posted the original audio in March 2024, a voice reacting to an insult with the line. The phrase mashes up Stewie Griffin’s “Erm, what the deuce?” from Family Guy with the sigma male meme. A dubbed SpongeBob edit by another user made it explode weeks later.
slang
“She rented a fog machine for a backyard birthday. That’s extra.”
EtymologyExtra has meant “more than needed” for centuries. Black American slang repurposed it in the 2000s and 2010s as a standalone put-down for someone being dramatic, and it spread through Vine and Twitter before settling into everyday use.
Gen Z, Gen Alpha
“He Fanum taxed half my fries and called it a service fee.”
EtymologyNamed for the streamer Fanum, of Kai Cenat’s AMP crew, who took bites of his friends’ food on camera. Cenat dates the first one to a December 2022 stream, when Fanum took his cookies.
slang
“New jacket is fire.”
EtymologySlang use of “fire” to mean excellent traces to Black American vernacular and 1980s hip-hop, where a hot track was “on fire.” It became a general-purpose compliment through rap lyrics and later through emoji shorthand on social media.
slang
“I don’t even like parties, but the group chat gave me FOMO.”
EtymologyMarketing strategist Dan Herman wrote the first academic paper on the phenomenon in 2000. Harvard Business School student Patrick J. McGinnis coined the acronym in a 2004 op-ed for the school paper, and social media adoption after 2006 pushed it into common use.
ironic
“Skipping breakfast to save time for a longer lunch. Galaxy brain.”
EtymologyThe term comes from the expanding brain meme, a four panel chart that debuted on Reddit in January 2017, where a glowing cosmic brain marked the chart’s final, most exaggerated take. Reddit and Twitter spread the format within weeks, and galaxy brain became shorthand for the joke. smooth brain
slang
“I asked the cashier a simple question and got the full Gen Z stare.”
EtymologyTikToker @meghan.alessi described the behavior in a July 2024 video about Gen Z coworkers. The phrase itself caught on a year later, after a June 2025 post about staring customer service workers got the reply “the Gen Z gaze,” and mainstream coverage followed that July.
dating slang
“We had three great dates, then he ghosted me.”
EtymologyThe word plays on the idea of vanishing like a ghost. It moved from general slang into dating vocabulary in the early 2010s as texting and dating apps made disappearing easier than a real breakup conversation.
TikTok, 2023
“Bread, grapes, and pickles: that’s a girl dinner.”
EtymologyTikToker Olivia Maher coined the term in a May 2023 video showing her dinner of bread, cheese, and pickles, comparing it to a medieval peasant’s plate. Another creator, Karma Carr, set the idea to a catchy sound, and it spread from there.
dated, ironic
“She called herself a girlboss right before laying off half the team.”
EtymologyNasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso coined the term for her 2014 memoir, drawing on the “girlboss” archetype from 1970s Japanese pinky violence films. The word turned pejorative by the early 2020s as several high-profile girlbosses were tied to workplace scandals, and Amoruso herself later asked people to stop using it.
slang, streamer
“Stop glazing him, he just made one good play.”
EtymologyThe term has roots in African American Vernacular English and hip-hop, where telling someone to stop glazing meant to stop overhyping a person. It spread on Twitch and TikTok around 2021 through streamers like Kai Cenat and Duke Dennis, who used it constantly in stream chat.
slang
“Most people rank three or four names for the GOAT debate.”
EtymologyMuhammad Ali called himself “The Greatest” after beating Sonny Liston in 1964. His wife is credited with turning the nickname into the acronym G.O.A.T. in the 1990s, and sports debate culture carried it into everyday slang through the 2000s and 2010s.
slang, gaming
“That last-second save was goated.”
EtymologyGoated is an adjective form of GOAT, built the way slang turns nouns into descriptors. It spread through gaming and Twitch chat in the late 2010s and early 2020s as a quicker way to say something is the best without spelling out the acronym.
slang, often ironic
“He posts a 5 a.m. cold plunge every day. Full grindset.”
EtymologyGrindset blends “grind” and “mindset” and emerged from hustle-culture posting around 2020. In March 2021, an Instagram page began pairing the sigma male meme with clips from American Psycho to mock this mindset as “sigma grindset,” and the ironic version overtook the sincere one.
slang
“Coffee on a cold morning just hits different.”
EtymologyThe phrase has roots in African American Vernacular English and appeared online in the late 2010s. SZA’s 2017 song “Hit Different” helped spread it, and TikTok’s short caption format turned it into a catch-all around 2020 and 2021.
slang
“He tripped over his own dog. IJBOL.”
EtymologyThe acronym dates back to at least 2009 on early Twitter and Urban Dictionary, but it stayed obscure for over a decade. K-pop fan communities revived it around 2021 while reacting to idol clips, and it spread widely on X by 2023.
TikTok, 2025
“My nephew only talks in Italian brainrot names now.”
EtymologyTikTok user @eZburger401 uploaded the first known video, Tralalero Tralala, in early January 2025, using AI image and voice tools with an Italian text-to-speech narrator. The format spread fast as other users generated their own hybrid creatures, spawning names like Bombardiro Crocodilo and Lirilì Larilà. Tralalero Tralala
ballroom, slang
“That outfit is giving librarian on her day off.”
EtymologyThe construction comes from ballroom and drag culture, where “giving” described how well a look read as its category. It moved into mainstream slang through queer and Black Twitter in the late 2010s, then spread widely on TikTok in the early 2020s.
ironic
“I dropped my last fry on the floor. It’s joever.”
EtymologyAn anonymous 4chan user posted an image of Joe Biden captioned “IT’S JOEVER” shortly before the 2020 election, a portmanteau of his name and the “It’s Over” reaction format. The image resurfaced and went properly viral in 2023, by which point people used it for anything, political or not.
slang, gaming
“Forgot my umbrella on the one day it rained. Big L.”
EtymologyL as shorthand for “loss” grew out of gaming culture, where match results were logged as W or L. It expanded into general slang through Twitter and meme culture in the 2010s as a one-letter way to mock any setback.
slang, texting
“I sent three follow-up texts and got left on read every time.”
EtymologyThe phrase depends on read receipts, a feature Apple added to iMessage in 2011 that later spread to other apps. Urban Dictionary logged “left on read” by 2016, and it became standard dating and texting vocabulary by 2017 and 2018.
slang, sports
“He’s three slides into an unnecessary PowerPoint. Let him cook.”
EtymologyRapper Lil B used “cooking” to mean taking your time and working with care as early as 2010. Sports commentators picked up “let him cook” for players on a hot streak, most visibly during the 2020 “Let Russ Cook” campaign for Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, and it later spread as a general meme phrase.
slang, dated
“The rooftop party was lit until security showed up.”
EtymologyLong used in African American Vernacular English to mean drunk or high. Hip-hop lyrics extended it to mean excellent or exciting, and the newer sense spread into mainstream slang between 2013 and 2015. Constant repetition made it feel dated by the early 2020s.
gaming, streamer
“Two exams tomorrow, so I’m locked in for the rest of the night.”
EtymologyCirculated in sports as a way to describe pre-competition focus, with early online use traced to a 2009 Urban Dictionary entry. Streamers and gamers adopted it for grinding sessions in the early 2020s, and it spread through TikTok in overlapping waves from 2023 to 2025.
from incel forums
“He’s been looksmaxxing since January: new haircut, new gym routine, new posture.”
EtymologyCoined in the mid-2010s on incel forums such as Lookism.net, using a “maxxing” suffix borrowed from the idea of maxing out a stat in a role-playing game. It moved through 4chan and Reddit before TikTok creators popularized a milder, mainstream version in the 2020s.
from AAVE
“I’m lowkey nervous about this presentation.”
EtymologyRooted in African American Vernacular English, where it described something kept quiet or under the radar. It spread into general internet slang through the 2010s as a softener placed in front of an honest admission.
TikTok
“She filmed her coffee run like a movie montage. Total main character behavior.”
EtymologyBuilt on “big dick energy,” an aura-based compliment from 2018, the fuller phrase crystallized after a May 2020 TikTok by creator Ashley Ward told viewers to think of themselves as the main character. Montage-style videos set to music turned it into a genre of its own.
slang
“Don’t ask him anything. He’s mewing.”
EtymologyFrom orthotropics, a jaw-posture method promoted by the British orthodontist John Mew and his son Mike. Evidence for the jawline claim is thin. Teenagers mew anyway.
gaming, slang
“The sequel was mid. Not bad, just nothing.”
EtymologyShort for “middle” or “average,” picked up in gaming and esports circles by the late 2010s to rate a player’s performance. Streamers and TikTok commenters broadened it to rate anything from meals to movies.
gymcel, from PUA culture
“He walked in at six foot four and started mogging everyone in the room.”
EtymologyTraces to AMOG, an acronym for “alpha male of the group” used in early-2000s pickup-artist forums. The shortened verb “mog” surfaced on 4chan’s fitness board around 2016 to describe a bigger man overshadowing a smaller one, then spread through gym and looksmaxxing communities online.
ballroom, from Black and Latino queer culture
“She walked the runway in that coat. She’s mother.”
EtymologyThe role dates to New York’s ballroom scene of the 1970s, where Crystal LaBeija founded the House of LaBeija and led it as its first mother. Ballroom houses used family titles to build chosen family among Black and Latino LGBTQ people excluded from their own families. Shows like Pose and RuPaul’s Drag Race carried “mother” as praise into wider slang.
meme, anime
“Godzilla versus my houseplant? Nah, I’d win.”
EtymologyLifted from a translated panel of the manga Jujutsu Kaisen, chapter 221, where the character Gojo says the line. Meme makers turned the panel into an exploitable template in late 2023, swapping in other characters and captions, and it peaked on TikTok and Reddit that November.
from AAVE
“That was the best burger I’ve had all year, no cap.”
EtymologyBuilt on “cap,” African American Vernacular English for lying or boasting, a usage documented since the early twentieth century. Southern hip-hop, including a 2017 Future and Young Thug track titled “No Cap,” pushed the phrase into wider use before it became standard Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang. cap
TikTok
“He didn’t text back for two days and called it staying nonchalant.”
EtymologyThe word itself is old, standard English, but TikTok turned it into a personality trend in the early 2020s, with creators posting guides on how to act unaffected by anything. The trend’s joking counterpart labeled anyone who cares openly as “chalant.”
gaming
“He does the same three machines at the gym every day. Total NPC.”
EtymologyFrom video games, where a non-player character is run by the game instead of a person. Applied to people from 2018, when a grey, blank-faced NPC meme spread online.
slang
“A man was walking a goose on a leash at the gas station. Only in Ohio.”
EtymologyFrom the US state, population about 11.8 million, most of whom did nothing to deserve this. Spread through the “only in Ohio” videos of 2022.
meme, dated
“He said kids today have it easy. OK boomer.”
EtymologyThe phrase existed in scattered use from around 2015 but broke into the mainstream in late 2019, after musician @peterkuli’s October 2019 TikTok remix spread it as a reply to an older man’s viral rant about younger generations. It quickly became shorthand for generational friction.
slang, dated
“Her eyebrows are on fleek today.”
EtymologyCoined by Kayla Newman, known online as Peaches Monroee, in a June 21, 2014 Vine praising her own eyebrows. The clip drew over 36 million loops, and celebrities and brands repeated the phrase through 2014 and 2015 without crediting or paying Newman.
from AAVE
“This is the best pizza in the city, on god.”
EtymologyRooted in African American Vernacular English as a shortened form of swearing an oath, close to “I swear to God.” It spread from Black Twitter and hip-hop lyrics into general internet slang alongside “no cap” and “periodt” in the late 2010s.
from drill music
“He posted a picture with his opps like nothing ever happened.”
EtymologyShort for “opposition,” used in Chicago drill music lyrics in the early 2010s to name rival gang members. UK drill scenes in South London carried the word further, and by the late 2010s it had spread into general slang for any rival or hater.
from Black and ballroom culture
“I’m not apologizing for that. Periodt.”
EtymologyGrew out of Black and ball-community slang, where AAVE’s tendency to sharpen a final “d” into a “t” sound turned “period” into “periodt.” Early online use appeared on Twitter as far back as 2009, and it broke into the mainstream through Black Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok around 2018.
TikTok, term of endearment
“Good morning, pookie, hope your day is easy.”
EtymologyThe name existed as an affectionate American nickname well before the internet, with Urban Dictionary defining it as a term of endearment as early as 2005. TikTok revived it in the 2020s, especially after a May 2023 meme by creator @hixko, and widened its use to friends, crushes, and favorite creators alike.
Word of the Year 2025, Oxford
“That headline was pure rage bait, and I still clicked it.”
EtymologyThe underlying idea dates to a 2002 Usenet post describing drivers deliberately provoking each other in traffic. The compound formed later on the model of “clickbait,” spreading through the 2010s to describe outrage-driven social media content, and Oxford University Press named “rage bait” its word of the year for 2025.
Twitter, dated
“His hot take got ratioed within ten minutes.”
EtymologyTwitter users noticed the pattern by March 2017, when a screenshot of a tweet with far more replies than retweets and likes was captioned as the ratio of someone who messed up. An Esquire piece that April gave the theory its widest audience, and “getting ratioed” became shorthand for a tweet that backfired.
dating slang
“He said his ex was crazy in the first five minutes. Red flag.”
Etymology“Red flag” has meant a warning signal in English for well over a century, from railway signals to political symbolism. Dating and relationship discourse adopted it as shorthand for a bad sign in a partner, and the phrase surged across TikTok and Twitter dating discourse starting around 2021.
slang
“That one line from the movie lives in my head rent free.”
EtymologyBuilt on the idea of an unwelcome tenant who doesn’t pay rent, applied to an intrusive thought. The full phrase “living in my head rent free” spread as a general internet taunt through the late 2010s and became a fixture of meme captions by 2020.
Word of the Year 2023, Oxford
“She rizzed up the whole table in five minutes.”
EtymologyClipped from the middle of charisma. Spread by the streamer Kai Cenat, and named Oxford Word of the Year in 2023.
TikTok, dated
“Ancient Rome is his Roman Empire, but mine is that one bad haircut from 2019.”
EtymologySwedish influencer Saskia Cort went viral in 2023 after asking her followers to ask the men in their lives how often they think about the Roman Empire. The question spread fast, racking up over a billion views on TikTok within weeks, and “my Roman Empire” became general shorthand for any fixation.
slang, dated
“He’s still salty about losing that game two weeks ago.”
EtymologyUsed in this sense in American slang since at least the mid-twentieth century, with roots in naval and military talk about a foul mood. Hip-hop kept the word alive, and gaming and internet slang carried it into wide, casual use through the 2010s.
slang, dated
“Telling her boss exactly what she thought of the plan? Savage.”
EtymologyAn old insult that branded people as uncivilized, long aimed at Indigenous peoples. Hip-hop and internet slang turned it into praise for bluntness by the mid-2010s, and Megan Thee Stallion’s 2020 song “Savage” pushed that sense into the mainstream.
from AAVE
“The cat knocked over the plant and just walked away. Sending me.”
EtymologyGrows out of African American Vernacular English, where movement language like “sending me to glory” described being overcome by strong feeling. The phrase moved into general internet reaction culture, especially as a TikTok comment, through the early 2020s.
slang
“Sheesh, he hit that shot from the parking lot.”
EtymologyThe word dates to 1950s American English as a mild exclamation close to jeez. NBA star LeBron James started using it online around 2017 to react to impressive plays, and a 2020 TikTok trend built on a drawn out sheeeesh sound turned it into a full meme.
ironic
“He ate lunch alone in the library. Sigma behavior.”
EtymologyThe 18th letter of the Greek alphabet, borrowed by the 2010s internet for a lone-wolf personality type. Now used mostly to mock the people who took it seriously.
slang
“He bought her flowers for the third week straight. Classic simp behavior.”
EtymologyThe word surfaced in 1940s American slang as a shortening of simpleton. Gaming forums and Reddit revived it around 2017 and 2018 as an insult for over-eager fans, and TikTok’s #simpnation trend spread it to a much wider audience in 2020.
Gen Z
“We’ve been on eleven dates. I don’t know if it’s a relationship or a situationship.”
EtymologyThe blend of situation and relationship appeared in relationship advice writing in the early 2010s. Dating apps and TikTok relationship talk carried it into common use by 2021 and 2022, and it now shows up in year end slang and trend roundups regularly.
Gen Alpha
“What the skibidi is going on here?”
EtymologyFrom Skibidi Toilet, the YouTube series of singing heads in toilets that began in 2023. See specimen No. 012
gaming
“He says the game is unbalanced. Sounds like a skill issue.”
EtymologyThe phrase grew out of competitive gaming chat and forums in the mid-2010s, used as a flat rebuttal to complaints about difficulty or balance. Speedrunning and Twitch communities kept it alive, and it moved into general internet use by the early 2020s.
from AAVE
“That outfit? Slay.”
EtymologyThe modern sense comes from Black and Latino ballroom and drag culture, where it praised a flawless performance or look. Black Twitter and gay Twitter carried it into wider internet slang through the 2010s, and mainstream platforms adopted it by decade’s end.
slang
“Half my feed is AI slop now, cars made of noodles and fake history facts.”
EtymologyThe word carries its older sense of watery, low grade food fed to animals. It picked up its content meaning around 2022 and 2023 as generative tools flooded feeds with junk, and “AI slop” became common shorthand in tech writing by 2024.
ironic
“I forgot my own phone number again. Smooth brain moment.”
EtymologyThe term grew directly out of the 2017 expanding brain meme, where a smooth, wrinkle-free brain marked the dumbest take on the chart. It spread as both a self-deprecating and insulting label across Reddit and Twitter in the years after. galaxy brain
slang
“I will stan this band until the day I die.”
EtymologyThe word comes from Eminem’s 2000 song “Stan,” about an obsessive fan, generally read as a blend of stalker and fan. K-pop fan communities adopted it as a self-label through the 2010s, and it became general vocabulary for devoted fandom online.
ironic
“He put his whole paycheck into one coin. Stonks.”
EtymologyThe word appeared in June 2017 on the Facebook page Special Meme Fresh, paired with the bald 3D “Meme Man” character standing in front of a rising stock chart. It spread across Reddit through 2018 and 2019, and communities like r/WallStreetBets carried it further.
gaming
“He left the room right before the lights went out. Kind of sus.”
EtymologyThe clipped form of suspicious had circulated in slang for years before the 2018 game Among Us built its entire premise around calling out sus players. The game’s huge 2020 popularity carried the word far past gaming.
Gen Z
“You hid my controller again? You sussy baka.”
EtymologyA mash-up of sus, from Among Us, and baka, Japanese for fool, popularized on TikTok in March 2021. A parody song setting the line over Among Us footage went viral weeks later, and the phrase became a fixture of early 2020s internet humor.
from AAVE
“Sit down, I have the tea on what happened at the wedding.”
EtymologyThe gossip sense traces to Black and drag ballroom culture, sometimes linked to the older phrase spilling the T for truth. Black Twitter carried it into wide internet use through the 2010s, and it is now standard slang across platforms.
Gen Z
“He ran to catch the bus and I got the ick, immediately.”
EtymologyIck as a general expression of disgust goes back decades, but the dating specific phrase reached TV audiences on a 1995 episode of Friends and a 1998 episode of Ally McBeal. Love Island contestant Olivia Attwood revived it in 2017, and TikTok turned it into a full meme format by 2020.
slang
“You’ve tweeted about this for six hours straight. Touch grass.”
EtymologyThe phrase circulated in gaming trash talk as early as 2015 and spread steadily on Twitter through 2019. Pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 pushed it into mainstream use as a comeback for anyone spending too much time online.
Gen Alpha
“Your new bike is tuff.”
EtymologyThe word is a deliberate respelling of tough, used in its older slang sense of admirable rather than physically hard. TikTok and gaming chat popularized this spelling among Gen Alpha users in the early 2020s.
slang
“He’s tweaking because his order was two minutes late.”
EtymologyThe word began as slang for the jittery, paranoid state of someone high on methamphetamine, in use since at least the 1980s. Online slang stretched it by the 2010s to cover any exaggerated, erratic reaction, unrelated to drugs.
from AAVE
“You ordered the same thing as me again. Twin.”
EtymologyThe friendly sense of the word comes from African American Vernacular English, where it marked a deep bond between people who are not related. Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang popularized it as a casual greeting and compliment in the early 2020s.
Gen Alpha
“Nobody uses that app anymore, unc.”
EtymologyThe word shortens uncle, a long standing respectful term of address in African American Vernacular English for an older man. Gen Alpha slang added a teasing edge in the early 2020s, using it to needle a sibling or parent for being out of touch.
from AAVE
“That performance? She understood the assignment.”
EtymologyThe phrase grew out of Black and LGBTQ+ internet culture, building on the plain classroom meaning of grasping a task. A March 2021 tweet pairing four Uma Thurman photos with the caption spread the format widely, and TikTok’s use of Tay Money’s song “The Assignment” that same year cemented it.
slang
“He walked in complaining already. Failed the vibe check.”
EtymologyThe phrase builds on the older word vibe, itself short for vibration, used since the 1960s for a feeling or atmosphere. It became its own meme format on Twitter and TikTok around 2019, often used to call out someone’s bad mood on sight.
gaming
“Passed the test on the first try. Big W.”
EtymologyThe letter is straightforward shorthand for win, used in gaming chat since at least the 2000s, with the loss version L just as common. Twitch and Discord culture carried the shorthand into general internet use through the 2010s.
ironic
“Our team scored twice in the last two minutes. We’re so back.”
EtymologyThe paired phrases “it’s so over” and “we’re so back” took shape on Twitter around 2021 as a way to swing between doom and hope in one breath. Sports and gaming fans spread it through 2022 to narrate every small comeback.
Gen Z
“He’s been yapping about his fantasy team for twenty minutes.”
EtymologyYap has meant idle chatter in English slang for over a century, echoing a small dog’s bark. TikTok revived it heavily starting in 2023, turning yapper into a standard label for anyone who dominates a conversation.
slang
“He yeeted the empty can straight into the recycling bin.”
EtymologyThe word appeared on Vine in 2014, most notably in a clip of a teenager dancing and yelling “yeet” while tossing a soda can. It spread from there into slang for throwing something hard, and later into a general exclamation.
dated
“I know it’s a work night. YOLO, one more round.”
EtymologyThe acronym for you only live once had scattered earlier use, but Drake’s 2011 song “The Motto” put the phrase in its chorus. The song’s early 2012 popularity turned YOLO into one of the year’s most quoted catchphrases, and Oxford Dictionaries shortlisted it that same year.
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