Language is constantly evolving, but when you get to be of a – let’s say parental – age, it sure feels like it starts evolving a lot faster than it used to. Add in the instantaneous speed and informational overload of online culture, and it becomes a whole lot to keep up with. It might even start to feel like you need a translator to be able to engage with your kid. And that’s exactly where we slide in with Spokeo’s guide to 2024’s most current online and offline slang.
We’re not saying you should try to deploy this slang too much if you’re over a certain age, but a little fluency definitely helps if you want to be part of the conversation – especially if you’re a parent.
Gen Z Slang
Some slang is a whole lot more online and some of it is a whole lot more cutting-edge, but before we dive into the deep end of 2024’s teenage slang phrases, let’s start with some of the more general slang you might hear from Gen Z nowadays.
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This is the part where we’re supposed to make a cute joke using Gen Z slang, but we’ll spare you and get to it. Here goes:
- Bae: from “baby,” significant other
- Basic: vanilla or boring, garden variety
- Bet: a form of “yes,” or a confirmation
- Cap: A lie, e.g. “no cap,” meaning “no lie”
- CEO: technically, this still means “Chief Executive Officer,” but in a teenage slang phrase like “[person] is the CEO of [thing],” it means that person is the boss or the master of something
- Cheugy: dated or uncool, especially in regard to millennial culture. e.g. “This article is cheugy”
- Cringe: weird or off-putting behavior, often refers to trying too hard
- Cook: the verb “to cook” means that someone is preparing something good. See also: “let them cook,” which translates to “hold on, let’s see what they’re going to do”
- Dead: a state of being used to exaggerate or emphasize a reaction, usually to something funny. e.g. “I’m dead”, simply “dead,” or some variation of 💀. See also: “I’m weak”
- Delulu: shortened form of “delusional”
- Drag: to make fun of or roast someone
- Drip: swagger, especially of the fashionable sort
- Extra: over-the-top
- Fam: short for “family,” used in the same way as the archaic “dude” or “bro”
- Fire: very cool or on-point (think “hot,” like…fire). See also: lit
- Fit: short for “outfit”
- Flex: to show off. e.g. “That new car is a flex”
- Function: usually “the function” or the “func,” a gathering or party
- Glow up: basically, a makeover – including an image makeover – that makes something a lot more attractive or cool
- Gucci: implies that something is good, cool, or going well
- Hits: a verb. When something “hits,” it lands well with or affects someone. Alternatively, if something “hits different,” it affects them in a way outside the norm or expectation
- Low-key: a modifier that downplays something. e.g. “low-key, I like it.” See also: high-key, low-key’s antonym
- Rizz: short for charisma
- Salty: bitter or angry, especially implying jealousy
- Slay: a verb or adjective meaning to be stylish or exhibit lots of swagger. Also used as an imperative in the same vein as “go off,” e.g. “Slay, queen!” or “Go off, king!”
- Serve: the act of looking good, e.g. “she’s serving”
- Shade: negative talk. See also: to “throw shade,” or talk negatively about someone
- Ship: from “relationship,” the act of willing people (often fictional characters) into romance
- Shook: to be shaken up or shocked by something
- Simp: to crush on someone to an embarrassing or degrading level. One can simp as a verb, or they can be a simp as a noun
- Sleep on: to ignore or underrate something. The passive “slept on” means something has been ignored or underrated
- Snatched: looks good or is fashionable
- Stan: as a verb, to stan something means that you support or stand for something. e.g. “We stan Spokeo People Search.” As a noun, one can also be a stan for something
- Sus: from “suspicious,” meaning shady or sketchy
- Tea: a noun meaning gossip or news, the latest. e.g. “Spill the tea on your date”
- Thirsty: desperate for attention, or horny
- Yassify: to make something over. Online, this is used ironically in reference to pictures that have way too many obvious filters applied; it can also mean that someone’s face looks filtered IRL
- Yeet: to throw something
- Yikes: see cringe
Chronically Online Slang
A lot of contemporary slang is a result of, to use a teenage slang phrase, being chronically online – which means very closely engaged (maybe even obsessively so) with internet culture. Especially in 2024, it’s a two-way street; real-world slang finds its way onto the internet, and online slang just as quickly finds its way into IRL speech.
In this era of culture wars, you’ll hear a lot of ironic and unironic use of canceled and woke. The act of being or getting canceled gained popularity during the “Me Too” movement; when bad actors were outed by victims of sexual assault or misogyny, they were “canceled,” which essentially means to de-platform or stop supporting someone, especially a public figure. Someone can get canceled, for instance, for making a racist or sexist comment. As a teenage slang phrase, it’s often used ironically to support something inconsequential, like “I got canceled because I don’t like pizza crust.”
Similarly, while woke was originally slang for being politically or culturally aware, it has been appropriated by far-right movements to degenerate progressive culture, especially cultures of inclusion and diversity. In response to the right’s adoption of the phrase, many people now use it ironically (e.g. “I don’t like paper straws, saving the planet is too woke”). Also in the terminally online category, to ratio someone means to gain more support with an opposing stance (it refers to Twitter culture, when a response to a tweet gets more likes – usually opposing or making fun of it – than the original tweet). Next, you have e-girl or e-boy, which is a person who builds a flirtatious presence on the internet. The millennial pause references the short delay before a (usually older) person starts recording themselves in a selfie video. Fittingly so, brain rot means that someone is a little too online, or a little too into something to the point of mindlessness.
Gen Alpha Slang
The lines are a little blurry and the language is still developing quickly, but if you’re a parent of a child born from roughly 2010 to 2024, your kid is considered part of Generation Alpha (Gen Z is generally considered 1996 to 2010-ish). Broadly speaking, Gen Alpha slang leans even more heavily into absurdism, which may or may not be a coping mechanism for life in the 2020s.
So far, these (pre-)teenage slang phrases have come to define the Gen Alpha parlance – expect the list to grow quickly as they age into the most marketable and marketed-to age group. Sorry, Gen Z, it happens to everyone eventually.
- Aura: an updated version of “vibe,” but often more personal. Someone or something having an “aura” might mean they have charisma, but they can also have a negative aura
- Fanum tax: stealing food from a friend, named after the food streamer, Fanum
- Gyatt: an exclamation, the shortened version of “God damn!” as in “gyatt damn!” Usually used to compliment one’s butt
- Looksmaxxing: to put an extreme focus on maximizing one’s looks, such as through exercise, diet, or wardrobe makeovers. Maxxing can also be used as a suffix, meaning to maximize something
- Mog: related to looksmaxxing, to look dominatingly more physically attractive
- Ohio: a synonym for cringe or cringey
- Rizzler: someone who has rizz
- Sigma: a play on Gen Z’s Alpha, which refers to an “Alpha” male, or dominant figure. A Sigma is more of a loner
- Skibidi: a nonsense word from the surreal YouTube short series, “Skibidi Toilet.” It’s inspired by the nonsense sounds of the show’s theme song and can be used pretty much however the speaker wants, often as a malleable adjective, interjection, or exclamation
TSAA (The Section About Acronyms)
Because so many Gen Z and Gen Alpha teenage slang phrases come from online culture, a ton of them are abbreviations, like you might see in a text, DM (direct message), chat, or tweet. So many, in fact, that they warrant their own category (so you don’t have to go Googling “ngl meaning”).
A fake editor’s note: While we’re going to present these in uppercase because that’s the AP style rule for acronyms, remember that most young people use lowercase for these.
- AF: As F**k. To emphasize something, e.g. “Spokeo’s cool AF”
- LFG: Let’s F**king Go!
- GOAT: Greatest of All Time, usually as “The Goat”
- IRL: In Real Life. As in, the offline, non-virtual, real-world space
- IYKYK: If You Know, You Know
- L: stands for a Loss, e.g. “to take the L”
- NGL: Not Gonna Lie
- ONG: “On God,” as in, “I swear.” Not a typo for OMG.
- TBH: To Be Honest
- TFW: That Feeling When, e.g. “TFW you get a good hit on Spokeo People Search”
- W: as in “a W,” also a “dub,” meaning a win
- YOLO: You Only Live Once, mostly used ironically
Potential Red Flags
On a more serious note, especially as a parent, some slang can indicate that your child isn’t in the best place, emotionally or mental-health wise, or might be getting into spaces that are a bit too adult for their age.
As a parent, you don’t want to find yourself asking “what does KYS mean” or Googling “asl meaning slang” unprepared for a potentially deep conversation, so keep these in your back pocket.
- 53X: sex
- ASL: an abbreviation for “age, sex, location,” usually used when trading info for romantic or sexual purposes. Alternatively, this is sometimes used as a short-hand way to say “As Hell,” e.g. “That video was cool asl.” For this one, context is key
- Body count: the number of people someone has slept with
- CU46: an abbreviation for “see you for sex”
- KMS or KYS: “kill myself” or “kill yourself.” Often used darkly ironically, but can also indicate bullying or being bullied, or legitimate depression. It never hurts to check
- LMIRL: “let’s meet in real life”
- Plug: a drug dealer or drug hookup
- WTTP: an abbreviation for “want to trade photos?”
While it’s true that a whole lot of teenage slang phrases in 2024 are deployed in a funny or darkly ironic way, here’s another, more meaningful truth: it never hurts to check in.
As a freelance writer, small business owner, and consultant with more than a decade of experience, Dan has been fortunate enough to collaborate with leading brands including Microsoft, Fortune, Verizon, Discover, Office Depot, The Motley Fool, and more. He currently resides in Dallas, TX.