Hi guys, Krissy here. I’m a Gen Z, so I thought this could be a good post. Slang is everywhere nowadays. People who don’t know slang are gonna be pretty confused when they pass by a group of teenagers.
The first slang word is: slay. This is probably my most-used slang word of 2023. Typically, this means viciously killing something, but in this context, it just means you did really good (You slayed!) It can also mean really cool, if you use it like, “That’s so slay!”
Another slang word is: rizz. This was the Oxford Word of the Year in 2023. This is short for charisma, but Gen Z shortens everything. It basically means your game, or how successful you are in getting an boyfriend/ girlfriend. If you have a lot of rizz, or W rizz, you are in a lot of relationships and a lot of people have a crush on you. L rizz means you don’t have any rizz, and you don’t have a lot of people crushing on you.
Fam is pretty self-explanatory. It’s short for family, but it can also mean your friends.
OMG means oh my gosh. It means you are very surprised and like 😲*gasp!* Basically it means you’re very shocked. There are lots of other abbreviations like IDK, GTG or TTYL.
IDK stands for “I don’t know,” which I think is pretty self- explanatory. GTG means “got to go,” meaning you have to leave. TTYL means “talk to you later.” Typically, you would say, “gtg now, bye. ttyl” to a friend if you had to leave.
Js is short for just, but like I said we shorten everything. This also works for cs (because).
Cap means lie/ be untruthful. If you say, “That’s such cap,” that means you don’t believe whatever they’re saying and you think it’s a lie. If you say, “No cap,” that means you are being entirely truthful and you aren’t lying.
Rizzing someone up is where a guy says, “There’s something over there” or “There’s something on your shirt,” and a girl looks wherever he’s pointing, and he lifts up her chin with his finger.
If someone ate or is eating, besides the actual definition of them physically eating, they are doing really well in something, or they did something well.
If something is a banger, it sounds really good, which usually only applies to music.
Something that is basic is very mainstream and something that a lot of people like, so it’s not unique and just like everyone else.
Bestie is, of course, short for best friend. You could use it to refer to someone you barely know, as a joke.
Bet means yes or for sure. If someone asks you if you want to do something, you could say “bet,” which would be equivalent to you saying yes.
Be so for real means come back down to Earth, and be realistic with what you are saying. If someone said they wanted to be a singer and they suck at singing, you could tell them to be so for real.
Boujee or bougie means rich. If you are bougie, you have expensive taste and you act rich, or you are rich.
Bussin’ is really good food. If something like ice cream is yummy, it’s bussin’.
Catching someone in 4k means you caught them doing something they would rather you not see.
If someone is cooking, they are doing really well in something. If someone says, “Let him/ her cook!” that means step back and give them room to do something good, or to stop bothering them and leave them alone.
If you are cooked, than you are screwed/ done for. There’s no coming back from that.
Being delulu is when, relationship-wise, you think somebody likes you based off of something random they did. People say “delulu is the solulu,” meaning that being delusional, or delulu, is the solution, or the solulu.
Being in an era means you are in that phase of life. If you say, “I’m in my Harry Potter era,” or “I’m in my Taylor Swift era,” it means that you really like Harry Potter right now, or you really like Taylor Swift right now.
Being extra means really over the top and dramatic for no reason. It also kind of means overreacting.
A fit is literally just an outfit, and a fit check is you going through your outfit and detailing where you got everything from.
Flexing means bragging about something that you have or that you have done, and trying to make yourself seem better than everyone else.
Gaslighting is when you lie and convince someone into thinking they are wrong. Usually you use this term in a relationship context.
Gatekeeping is not telling someone something, or purposely holding information back.
An ick is similar to a red flag. It’s when someone (usually someone you like or are dating) does something or says something that you didn’t like.
Being ghosted is when someone that you were talking to, whether it’s as a friend or romantically, and they suddenly stop talking to you, and completely ignore you on all platforms.
If someone is glazing, they are complimenting you and complimenting you, to the point where it’s getting annoying and it’s making people around you cringe. It’s basically the same as kissing up to someone.
Having a glow up means that you improve your appearance, style, and you become more confident. A glow-down is the exact opposite.
If someone called you the GOAT, no, it doesn’t mean you look like a goat. It means Greatest of All Time.
If something hits different, it’s just better in a strange, unexplainable way, like saying “Costco pizza just hits different,” means you don’t know why Costco pizza is better than other pizzas, it just is.
If that shirt is giving, it means it looks really good/cute. If something is giving Y2K, then it looks like it’s from the 2000’s and the Y2K era.
IYKYK stands for ‘if you know, you know,’ basically meaning that if you know what I mean, then you know what I’m talking about, and if you don’t, you don’t.
A Karen is someone who wants to talk to the manager over literally nothing, so basically an entitled lady in her mid-forties.
Locking in means concentrating really hard on whatever you’re doing.
Mewing is pressing your whole tongue to the roof of your mouth, which is supposed to make your jawline sharper.
Something that is mid is in the middle, it’s okay, but usually people use this as something more negative.
An opp is an enemy. It’s short for opposition, but calling someone an opp is often used as a friendly joke.
Something out of pocket is really random and it comes out of nowhere.
A pookie is a nickname for someone really close to you, or a partner. I call my closest friends pookie, and sometimes my sister.
A red flag is kind of like an ick (see above). It’s something someone does that makes you lose interest, but whereas an ick is something that bothers you, a red flag is something that’s straight up bad, possibly even toxic.
A Roman Empire is something that makes you think about it a lot, something that you really like, and it’s almost unexplainable why you like it so much.
When someone is salty, they are bitter and resentful. Usually if you call someone salty, you don’t agree that their actions fit the context.
A simp is someone who will do anything for a girl, or someone who’s really overly nice to girls, in hope they will like them.
A situationship is almost a talking stage. It’s kind of when you know someone likes you, and you like them back, but you aren’t official and you aren’t boyfriend/ girlfriend yet.
Something that slaps is really good. It’s kind of like eats and/ or bussing.
Something that is slept on is underrated, and no one talks about it enough.
A bop can mean two different things. It can mean a really good song, or someone who dates around a lot, kind of a girl version of a player.
Sus is short for suspicious, but no one really says that anymore, it was more of a 2022 thing.
Bombastic side eye/ criminally offensive side eye were all also 2022 words, but they just mean something that happens that require you to side eye them, or look at them like they went a little insane.
Tea is gossip. If you’re spilling the tea, then you are telling everyone the news, or the gossip.
Telling someone to touch grass is the same as saying they need to go outside and get off their phones/ devices more often.
Yapping is talking for a long time about really saying anything at all.
I think that’s all the slang I know, but if I think of anything else, I’ll continue to update this list!