English dictionary, thesaurus, translations & etymology

Slang Dictionary — Modern Slang, Decoded

What does that word actually mean? Our slang dictionary explains modern slang clearly — Gen Z, internet, British and street slang — with real definitions, examples and where each term came from.

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Gen Z Slangrizz, delulu, slay Internet Slangbrainrot, based, mid British Slangpeng, bare, peak AAVEbussin, finna, cap

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Hospital nickname for the proctologist — the doctor whose job involves the rear end all day. Pure pun, plays the naval rank against the working area. Used in the corridor, never to the patient, and the proctologists themselves usually own it.

In ballroom, a competition category scored on how authentically and undetectably you pass as a given type — businessman, schoolgirl, military, etc.

A program that documents a group's everyday life, tour, or pre-debut competition, deepening fans' connection. Survival-style reality shows create groups from scratch.

real-time all-kill

Abbreviated RAK, achieved when a song holds the top spot on every iChart real-time chart at the same moment.

A preface signaling that what follows is sincere and heartfelt, cutting past joking or posturing.

An appeal to loyalty, implying that true friends or fans already understand without it being explained.

An intensifier meaning 'very' or 'plenty'. Also spelt rel, rehl.

reading the mail

When you've got the CB on, you're tuned in, you're hearing every conversation — but you're not pressing the mic. Just lurking on the channel. Truckers call that 'reading the mail.' Same energy as scrolling a group chat without posting. Useful for catching smokey reports or traffic intel without announcing yourself.

reading / the read

Reading is insult as performance art. You point out someone's flaws so precisely and so wittily that the whole room cracks up. It's not random cruelty, it's craft, you exaggerate the truth and land it clean. As Dorian Corey put it in Paris Is Burning, when you're all of the same kind, then reading becomes the real art form of insult.

The original art form of insult in Black and Latine queer ballroom culture. To read someone is to find the real, specific flaw and say it out loud with surgical wit, making the crowd howl. It's confrontation as performance: sharp, deliberate, undeniable. As Dorian Corey lays it out in Paris Is Burning: 'Reading is the real art form of insult. Shade comes from reading. Reading came first.'

Cash money, especially notes ready to spend.

The maximum-strength version of a read. 'To filth' is the intensifier — it means total demolition, no part of the person left standing. Where a read might sting, being read to filth is a public obliteration that the audience will quote for weeks. Straight out of 1980s Black queer ballroom, where the reading tradition was a competitive art form.

A procedure word meaning "repeat this entire transmission back to me exactly as received," used to confirm critical information such as coordinates or frequencies was copied correctly.

Near-synonym of getting clocked: to be perceived as trans, usually by a cis person, usually when you'd rather just be seen as you. 'She read me' or 'I got read as trans' is the phrasing. Distinct from the ballroom sense of 'reading' someone (dragging their flaws to filth), though they share the same root of being sharply seen.

A bot-powered setup where staff post a message listing roles, and you click a reaction emoji to assign yourself one. Used for pronouns, game pings, colour roles, NSFW channel access — anything that doesn't need a human gatekeeper. The backbone of any half-decent community server.

To buy more cannabis after running low or out.

The act of peeling off old, worn grip tape and applying a new sheet to restore traction on the deck.

Hitting the lip of the wave vertically and then dropping back into the wave face to continue the ride.

razz my berries

Used to express enthusiastic approval of something.

Each lane has a pair of rax behind the tier-3 tower — one melee, one ranged. Crack the enemy's and the creeps you send down that lane get a beefy upgrade. Clear all three lanes of rax and you unlock mega creeps.

A fan role in the scanlation pipeline who obtains and shares the raw, untranslated manga scans that translators and typesetters then work from.

Original-language manga scans or anime video without translation, downloaded by fans who read ahead or scanlate.

In powerlifting, lifting without supportive equipment like squat suits or bench shirts — typically only a belt and wrist wraps allowed.

Historically, an illegal or underground gathering, especially in '80s and '90s acid house culture.