Another way to say “approval”

Exciting, awesome, or high-energy. Describes parties, songs, events, moods — anything you'd want to rally around. By the late 2010s "lit" was cross-generational; using it unironically at a family dinner is a minor crime in Gen-Z circles.

Extremely good — usually food, but increasingly applied to songs, weather, and outfits. The doubled form "bussin bussin" means exceptionally so; one "bussin" is a polite compliment, two is a declaration.

Used ironically after the viral phrase "very demure, very mindful." Describes anyone behaving modestly, professionally, or primly — the joke is applying it to mundane or contradictory moments.

Agreeing with something strongly because it's bold, authentic, or unafraid to be unpopular. The opposite of "cringe." "Quitting Twitter to read books again — based." Rapper Lil B redefined the word (previously slang for cocaine) in the early 2010s as a term for being yourself.

Did something so flawlessly there was nothing left to critique. Highest tier of praise for a performance, outfit, or moment. "Beyoncé's Coachella set? She ate and left no crumbs." Doesn't work for routine compliments — save it for moments that deserved a standing ovation.

The fire emoji 🔥 means something is excellent, stylish, or hot right now. The universal "this is good" reaction on social media. A single 🔥 is a compliment; three in a row is a coronation. Deployed across every generation — one of the few emojis with no ironic register.

A girl who embodies the brat aesthetic — confident, messy, fun, a little self-destructive. The anti-clean-girl. Wears lime green, drinks espresso martinis at noon, doesn't reply to texts. Charli XCX coded the archetype; TikTok adopted it within a week.

The imaginary score tallying how cool your actions are. Winning a game with a trick shot? +500. Tripping in public? -1000. The currency of ironic online coolness.

Approved, legitimate, or acceptable. Used to affirm a feeling, opinion, or choice: "your rage is valid." A Gen Z rhetorical move that treats emotions and preferences as default-legitimate until proven otherwise — the inverse of the older "get over it."

The vibe or energy someone gives off, quantified in imaginary "aura points." Cool moments add aura ("hit a three with eyes closed — +1000 aura"), embarrassing ones cost it ("tripped on flat ground — −500"). A joking metric for real-time coolness that Gen Z treats half-seriously.

British adjective meaning mildly impudent in a charming way — or a slightly indulgent, casual act. "Cheeky Nando's" = a spontaneous meal out with mates.

Excessively praising or kissing up to someone. In Gen Z usage it's the social register; in tech it also describes overly sycophantic AI models. "Stop glazing him — he literally just passed a midterm." OpenAI famously rolled back a GPT-4o update in April 2025 for being too glazing.

To do something exceptionally well or look amazing doing it. Originated in drag ballroom culture ("she slayed the house down"), entered mainstream via RuPaul's Drag Race and Black Twitter, then was over-deployed to the point of ironic cringe. Using it sincerely in 2025 now reads slightly millennial.

An aesthetic and vibe — messy, unapologetic, slightly unhinged fun. Defined the summer of 2024 via Charli XCX's album. Wearing lime green became a political statement for 12 weeks; "kamala IS brat" briefly united two unrelated universes. Half the internet is still recovering.

The crown emoji. Used to declare royalty — literal (a birthday queen) or figurative (your favorite pop star, your friend who just nailed a performance). "Queen 👑" and "King 👑" are now standard replacements for "you did amazing."

An assessment of someone's energy or mood — passing means they're cool to be around, failing means the vibe is wrong. Pass/fail criteria are vibes-based and final; arguing the verdict fails you instantly. The vibe check is not a democracy.

To show off — possessions, skills, achievements, partners, views. "Hard flex" = unmissable brag. "Soft flex" = casually dropped reference. "Weird flex but ok" disarms someone bragging about something irrelevant: a one-line roast for oversharers.

A moment of ruthless financial reality-checking where someone scrutinizes spending, budgets, or decisions with the cold precision of a trained accountant; calling out wasteful or irrational money moves in a group.

A moment of verification or acknowledgment that someone is displaying authentic AG (actual gangster or aggressive go-getter) behavior. Used online to call out, confirm, or question whether someone's actions genuinely live up to the AG label, often as playful social accountability.

The particular vibe or aura of someone who is deeply focused on school — showing up early, highlighting textbooks, always prepared, never missing a lecture. Can be used admiringly or to poke fun at someone who seems to have no interests outside of their grades.

The character development era where someone leans fully into their soft, sweet, endearing side — usually after a harder or more chaotic period in their timeline. The adorabubble arc is a glow-up of the wholesome variety: more plants, more baking, more talking to their cat, less drama. Followers clock it in real time and the consensus is always the same: this is their best era.

That instantly recognizable vibe someone gives off when they're just radiating softness, warmth, and irresistible charm without even trying. Adorabubble energy is not performance — it's presence. You walk into a room and people immediately feel lighter. Your laugh is contagious, your outfit is somehow both cozy and cute, and you probably have a nickname for every plant you own. It's the kind of energy that makes even the most guarded person instinctively smile.

When someone fully commits to being soft, sweet, and utterly precious — no irony, no edge, just pure bubbly warmth dialed all the way up. Adorabubble mode is a deliberate state, not just a vibe. You enter it when you wear the fuzzy socks, speak in a higher pitch, want to pet every dog, and need everyone around you to acknowledge how much you love small things. It's a whole mood and it's completely valid.

The practice of optimizing every aspect of your life to max out your Acela corridor credibility — reading the right books, attending the right panels, collecting the right connections, and curating your online presence to signal serious-minded insider status. Acela maxxing is what happens when ambition meets aesthetics and produces someone who is networking even while allegedly relaxing. It can be sincere or deeply calculated, and the result either lands as impressive or exhausting depending on your perspective.

The fully crystalized aesthetic identity of the DC/NYC professional class, treated as a coherent fashion and lifestyle genre. Acela core is what you wear, watch, read, and drink when you are, or want to appear to be, part of the Northeast Corridor power circuit. Think navy blazers over ASICS, Substack newsletters about democratic backsliding, oat milk at a standing desk, and a quiet certainty that you're one policy memo away from mattering. It's a mood board. It's a politics. It's a whole lifestyle.

A woman who embodies Afrocrat ideals at the highest level — intellectually engaged, politically sharp, culturally rooted, and unapologetically committed to the advancement of African people. The afrocrat queen doesn't just wear the identity; she builds it, teaches it, and lives it with a consistency that demands acknowledgment. She's the kind of figure who shifts how conversations happen just by being in the room, whose knowledge base and cultural commitment sets the standard that others aspire to.

A quick ideological or cultural assessment to determine whether someone truly embodies the Afrocrat identity — that blend of African cultural pride, intellectual rigor, and political consciousness — or is just performing it for optics. The afrocrat check cuts through the surface-level signaling to interrogate what someone actually believes, practices, and stands for. It's not about gatekeeping; it's about authenticity. Passing the afrocrat check means your values, your knowledge, and your engagement with African identity all line up consistently.

The preeminent female voice in Afrobeats — an artist whose talent, style, and cultural presence elevate the genre while carving out powerful space for women in what has historically been a male-dominated sound. Figures like Tiwa Savage, Tems, and Ayra Starr have all been called afrobeats queen at various points, each representing a different era and vision of what feminity in the genre can be. The title carries weight beyond chart performance — it acknowledges artistry, cultural significance, and the ability to make the genre's sound feel freshly inhabited. Fiercely assigned and debated in fan spaces globally.

An ADC check is the moment in a League of Legends match — or other team-based games with a similar role — where teammates quickly assess the state of the carry: their farm count, health, items, and positioning. It's a call for accountability and situational awareness. Outside strict gaming contexts, 'ADC check' has leaked into gaming community humor as shorthand for any moment of verifying whether the person whose job is to deal damage is actually doing their job.

An aesthetic and personality archetype built entirely around the love of talking — featuring people who treat conversation as performance art, narrate their own lives out loud, and treat every mundane event as content worth discussing in detail. Yap-core style involves the kind of person who sends twelve-minute voice notes, talks to the self-checkout machine, and always has a story that somehow becomes a saga. It's less about communication and more about the sheer pleasure of words.

Agentic maxxing is the practice of pushing your autonomous self-direction to absolute maximum — eliminating every external dependency, optimizing every decision loop, and building systems so tight that you barely need input from other humans to operate. If agentic mode is running on internal initiative, agentic maxxing is tuning that engine to its absolute limit. It sits at the intersection of productivity optimization culture and AI discourse, describing someone who has basically tried to become their own agentic AI system: planning, executing, self-correcting with minimal outside interference.

An enshittification check is a critical audit of a platform, product, or service to assess how far along the degradation cycle it has progressed — the deliberate process of measuring how much a once-useful digital experience has been hollowed out in the service of extracting value from its users and third parties. It borrows the community-validation format of 'X check' and applies it to Cory Doctorow's enshittification framework, inviting collective diagnosis: are the feeds worse? Is the algorithm more hostile? Is the free tier being strangled? Comes out positive far too often.

A small printed card which identifies the bearer, traditionally presented for introduction when making a social visit to a home or when attending a formal social event or business meeting.

, the national public radio broadcaster of India.

The third day of the week in many religious traditions, and the second day of the week in systems that use the ISO 8601 norm; it follows Monday and precedes Wednesday.

Any cohesive group of people; a unit; such as a military company.

A permanent military post.

An organized practice to prepare occupants of an office, school or other public building for evacuation in the event of a fire.

The amount or volume of loose or solid material held by a particular scoop.

Wicked people collectively.

The break in the working week, usually two days including the traditional holy or sabbath day. Thus in Western countries, Saturday and Sunday.

A male fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.

Offensive to standards of decency or morality.

Someone who takes care of a place or thing; someone looking after a place, or responsible for keeping it in good repair.

A V-shaped pattern; used in architecture, and as an insignia of military or police rank, on the sleeve.

A political interest group by members of a legislative body.

Good-humoured bits of monologue and/or conversational prompts used in any of a wide range of occupations that must frequently interact with the public (for example, store clerks, salespersons, nurses).

The totality of a situation.

A strong cloth of wool or cotton, often used for military or other uniforms.

Suspecting rivalry in love; troubled by worries that one might have been replaced in someone's affections; suspicious of a lover's or spouse's fidelity.

A small stall for the display and sale of goods.

of the lowest quality available.

Chaotic good things or attitudes generally.

A 1990s feminist punk movement characterized by raw aggressive guitar, feminist politics, and DIY culture. Key bands: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Sleater-Kinney.

In jazz: traditional, in-the-pocket playing — as opposed to fusion, free, or experimental jazz. Marker of conservative or classic style.

Excellent, great. Mostly dated now; older Aussies still use it earnestly.

Greatest of All Time. Used for athletes, musicians, and (jokingly) anyone praised. The lowercase "goat" is rare; usually capitalized.

A cooler / icebox for drinks and food. Genericized trademark — Esky was the dominant brand.

A spectacular goal. Spanish for "great goal," used freely in English football commentary and fan vernacular.

Genuinely respected and authentic — combining "true" and "real." A trill person is solid; a "trill OG" is a respected veteran.

A trader who sells at the first sign of trouble, lacking conviction. The negative counterpart to diamond hands.

(colloquial, mostly, North America) It's OK; it's not a big deal.

(AAVE) Bad, not good; (by extension) ugly or crazy.

(slang, ethnic slur, offensive, AAVE) A moment in which emotion or ignorance overpowers one's rationality, causing an outburst of irrational aggression.

(slang) One who refuses to join, or withdraws from, a trade union.

(slang) Property of being legit.

(slang) Lame, uncool, stupid.

(slang) Very good; excellent.

(slang) The couple consisting of American musician Travis Barker and American media personality Kourtney Kardashian, married in 2022.

(slang, offensive, derogatory) Israel, viewed as an illegitimate state.

(AAVE, slang) Extremely good or impressive.

(slang) excellent.

(internet slang, Fediverse, often, humorous) A wrench emoji (🔧) reaction, used to express disapproval.

(slang) A fan of the television series Angel.

(slang) Fashionable, cool.

(Internet slang) To return to the aesthetics or traditions of an earlier historical era.

(internet slang, 4chan slang) Superhero movies, especially those of high cinematic quality.

(internet slang) A photograph of a person's face.

(slang, derogatory, UK) A member of a non-elite regiment, not in the British army's parachute regiment or the SAS.

(slang) Amazing.

(Internet slang, derogatory, political) A person with left-wing political views.

(slang, chiefly, African American Vernacular English) Excellent; great; very successful.

(Internet slang, text messaging, mildly, vulgar) ; used to indicate great amusement.

(Internet slang, politics, derogatory) To take direct action, in the context that the threats of such action are empty.

(slang, humorous, offensive, vulgar, derogatory, ethnic slur) An American, generally depicted as fascist or racist.

(military slang) mess hall.

(obsolete, military slang) Dysentery, as experienced by ANZACs at the Battle of Gallipoli.

(dated, military slang) A dugout or shelter, especially as used in the Korean War.

(Caribbean, folklore) A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly.

(British, military slang, historical) A small calibre shell from World War I.

(military slang) A graduate of, or student at, the United States Air Force Academy, USAFA.

(military slang) Broken and unable to be fixed; dead.

(military slang, WWI) A tin hat.

(US, military slang) Not specified as a military target.

(Malaysia, Singapore, derogatory) A young Chinese woman in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia, associated with a stereotype of having little education or sophistication and operating within secret societies and street gangs.

(India) The weighing of goods.

(India, military, obsolete) A native adjutant in regiments of Indian irregular cavalry.

(Malaysia, Singapore) handsome; good-looking.

(India) A deceased relative who is connected to the greater body of ancestors by the sharing of a sacrificial offering.

(India) A local political association.

(India, politics) The people; the populace.

(India) A worthless person; good-for-nothing.

(India, neologism, rare) Showing hostility and hatred against Hinduism and Hindu people.

(India, politics, derogatory) The politics of right-wing Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) that seek to make the Indian state adopt policies that recall and glorify Hindu cultural history and heritage of India at the expense of other religious traditions.

(politics) : an Irish policy think tank.

(rare, India, philosophy) The state or quality of being or having quality.

(India, historical) A grain measure in use in the Madras Presidency, varying in different localities, but typically 12 sers; fixed since 1846 at 800 cubic inches.

(India) An urban political unit comparable to a municipality.

(India, historical) A shop selling European goods in an upcountry station.

(South Africa) politically optimistic and receptive to change.

(India) A person involved in the disposal of corpses, traditionally a lower-caste Hindu and considered untouchable.

(now, chiefly, North America) Lacking in good manners; impolite, discourteous.

(South Africa) A device used in necklacing (an informal execution); a rubber tyre that is filled with petrol. It is placed around the victim's chest and arms, and set on fire.

(South Africa, by extension) Any other product or service that is of inferior quality.

(chiefly, Canada) Things, ideas, or activities distinctive of Canada or Canadians, especially works of literature and other cultural products.

(Canada, chiefly, Newfoundland) A traditional Sunday evening meal eaten around Newfoundland and Labrador, typically consisting of salted beef boiled with vegetables.