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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Latest slang terms

The ability to perform well in high-stress, game-deciding situations.

Feeling a strong desire to have or hold babies.

Putting on a show in your lowrider — hitting switches, three-wheeling, bouncing it down the boulevard for the crowd. The whole point of cruise night.

cloutlationship

A cloutlationship is a coupling kept up primarily for the online image, followers, or attention it generates rather than genuine connection.

Social influence or status, particularly the kind that comes from being well-known online. Having clout means people pay attention to you and what you do carries weight.

A class that can only wear cloth — mages, priests, warlocks. Big spell damage, but they fold the second something gets in melee range.

The shared close — that tiled stairwell and entry passage running through a tenement. Where weans played, neighbours gossiped, and you took your turn mopping the stairs.

A low-budget cosplay put together from clothing you already own or can buy off the rack, chosen to evoke a character without sewing or crafting.

A defensive move where a player sprints toward a shooter, often with a hand up, to disrupt the attempt.

A wave that breaks simultaneously along its whole length, leaving no shoulder to ride and making it essentially unrideable.

The common entrance passage and stairwell of a tenement building.

Being scheduled to work the closing shift one night and the opening shift the next morning, leaving very little time to rest. It is common and criticized in retail and hospitality.

A rag or cloth, usually a dishcloth or something for wiping down. Kitchen-sink word.

To be read as trans when you'd rather not be, or to spot that someone else is trans. Getting clocked is the moment the blend breaks: a stranger, a cashier, a stare. For a lot of trans people it lands as a gut-punch and, depending where you are, a genuine safety risk. Spawns 'clockable' and 'clocky' for someone easily read.

Used humorously for starting any task or drama.

To clock someone is to catch the detail that betrays the illusion — the thing they hoped you'd miss. Spotting that a queen isn't cis, that the bag is a fake, that the story doesn't add up. You clocked it. In the scene it's about cracking realness; out in the wild it's loosened to just 'I noticed.'

Clothes — particularly the outfit you've put on for going out. Heavily used in Scouse but common across British English. Often implies decent, fashionable gear rather than any old rags. Liverpool's casuals scene basically ran on the word.

Cloaking is not showing up for a planned date and simultaneously blocking the person on all apps and messaging platforms, so they vanish entirely.

To pass through level geometry that should be solid. Usually done by abusing collision jank — wedging into a corner, or moving fast enough that the game checks your position on the wrong side of a wall. Bread and butter for skipping chunks of a level.

A prison; a generic term for being locked up.

climb the corporate ladder

To progress through successively higher positions and titles within a company or profession, gaining seniority, pay, and authority along the way.

One's crew, clique, or gang set in Chicano slang.

A period at the start of a vesting schedule during which no tokens unlock; at the end of the cliff a first tranche releases, after which vesting continues.

The TV remote. Regional staple across Michigan, the wider Midwest, and New England — boomers and Gen-Xers especially. Named after the old mechanical remotes from the 50s/60s that literally clicked when you pressed them, and the name stuck even after infrared went silent.