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

A short interval when the sun breaks through an otherwise cloudy Pacific Northwest sky.

A person senior to you in experience within a field, such as an idol who debuted earlier. Juniors show them deference and respect.

sun's out, guns out

A phrase celebrating warm weather as an excuse to wear sleeveless clothing and show off big arms ('guns').

Something. A staple of Yorkshire and Northern speech.

To go quiet and sulky after not getting one's way; to clam up in a huff.

Casual slang, especially among younger women, for the person one has romantic feelings for — a crush or partner.

A driver pulling explosives, compressed flammable gas, or other hazmat that would erase a city block in a hard crash. The name is gallows humour — the cargo could turn you and your truck into a crater. Suicide jockeys run dedicated routes, can't tunnel through most cities, and have to placard everything correctly or the DOT crawls all over them.

The cheap-feeling one. You kill an enemy and, as it dies, it spits a bullet (often aimed straight at you) as a parting gift. Catches careless players who think a dead enemy is a safe enemy. You have to clear them in an order that doesn't leave you tanking a faceful of suicide shots.

A phrase meaning 'incredibly big', popularised as a fandom meme (frequently abbreviated 'SSS' from a viral scene) and used hyperbolically for anything huge or impressive.

An exclamation of admiration or amazement, roughly 'wow, amazing!'. It is one of the most frequently heard reactions in anime dialogue.

The small leaves growing among cannabis flowers, coated in trichomes and often trimmed off.

The funder in a sugar arrangement. An older, well-off guy who pays a younger partner, the sugar baby, an allowance, rent, holidays, designer gear, in exchange for time, company, and almost always sex. Whole apps exist for it. Legally a grey zone, culturally pretty out in the open since SeekingArrangement put it on billboards in the 2010s.

Insider name for the sugar-dating community. The apps (Seeking, WhatsYourPrice), the subreddits, the Telegram groups, the etiquette, the warnings about salt daddies, the whole scene. If a sugar baby says she's 'leaving the bowl', she's getting out of the game.

The other half of the arrangement. Usually a young woman (sometimes a man), trading her time, looks, and company for a sugar daddy's allowance, rent, tuition, trips. The selling point is the framing: it's dating with money attached, not sex work, even when it functionally is.

A cannabis concentrate with a wet, granulated, sugar-like texture created by small cannabinoid crystals suspended in terpene-rich oil.

Sugar — affectionate address for anyone younger or familiar. Said SHOOG, never SUG. Carries warmth without flirtation; it's the verbal equivalent of being handed a plate of food.

A poor, hard-pressed person of the ghetto struggling to survive; a figure of dignity in reggae ('sufferer's music').

A drain, gutter or sewer grate. Classic Brummie warning shouted at kids before something rolls into one and is lost forever. Old word, still going strong in Birmingham and the Black Country.

Idiom meaning things are now going well, momentum has kicked in, you're firing on all cylinders. Comes from the imagery of an engine finally pulling fuel through and roaring into life. Usually prefixed with 'now we're' — said with satisfaction once a slow start gives way to results.

A sucker rally is a temporary rise in a stock or market, driven more by hope than fundamentals, that lasts just long enough to draw in buyers ('suckers') before reversing lower. It often occurs within a broader downtrend.

An inferior or fraudulent MC who lacks genuine skill on the microphone.

Sweets. Confectionery. The Black Country term that's outlasted most of the dialect — even kids still use it. Catch-all for anything from a quarter of pear drops to a lolly. Goes back to the literal act: a sweet you suck on.

The Screwed Up Click — the Houston rap collective that orbited DJ Screw. They freestyled on his tapes, repped the city's South Side, and pretty much wrote the playbook every chopped-and-screwed-era Houston MC followed. Roster reads like a Texas rap hall of fame: Fat Pat, Big Hawk, Lil Keke, Big Moe, E.S.G., Z-Ro, Trae.

A permanent or project-based smaller lineup drawn from a bigger group, releasing its own music. Common in large groups like SEVENTEEN or NCT.