passa passa
A Patois word for confusion, drama, gossip, a rough situation or an ongoing back-and-forth quarrel — essentially "mess" or "commotion".
Definitions
A Patois word for confusion, drama, gossip, a rough situation or an ongoing back-and-forth quarrel — essentially "mess" or "commotion". The reduplication (passa-passa, like fenke-fenke or chaka-chaka) intensifies the meaning, a regular Patois pattern. The word is also the name of one of the most famous street-dance party series of 2000s Kingston: Passa Passa, held weekly on Spanish Town Road in Tivoli Gardens from around 2003 onward, became a defining dancehall event and was widely filmed and circulated on early YouTube, exporting Jamaican dance moves and fashion to a global audience. In casual speech "don't bring no passa-passa here" means roughly "don't bring trouble or drama into this".
whole heap a passa-passa break out after him post that comment
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🗺️About Regional & Other slang
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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Other words near "passa passa" (P)
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Related terms
Semantically related
- dutty61%
Patois spelling of "dirty", reflecting the typical Caribbean pronunciation where the "r" softens and the final consonant is voiced. Used literally to mean unclean or filthy, but more often as slang for "raw", "hard", "intense" or "impressively grimy" in the same way English speakers might say a beat is "filthy". Common in dancehall and UK garage/grime, where a "dutty bassline" is a heavy, distorted, irresistible one. The word also names a whole family of dances and phrases: "dutty wine" (a popular 2000s dance involving rapid neck and hip rotation, named in Tony Matterhorn's 2006 hit), "dutty whine", "dutty dancing". Tone determines whether the speaker is paying a compliment, describing literal dirt or, sometimes, calling someone disreputable.
- gwan59%
Patois contraction of "go on", used in several distinct everyday senses: as a greeting equivalent to "what's going on?" (often in the phrase "wha gwan?" or its shortened form "wagwan"), as encouragement meaning "carry on, you're doing well" ("gwan, mi yute!"), as an acknowledgement of someone's style or hustle ("him a gwan good"), and occasionally as a dismissive "go away, get out of here". Pronounced roughly "GWAHN". Massively common across Jamaica, the wider Caribbean and the UK Caribbean diaspora, and a staple of reggae, dancehall and grime lyrics. Multifunctional enough that meaning depends almost entirely on tone, surrounding words and facial expression.
- commess59%
(Caribbean) Gossip about local scandals.
- No pasaran58%
Spanish for 'they shall not pass', originally a 1930s Republican civil-war slogan but adopted in modern Twitch/Discord chats to mean 'defend the gate, repel the invaders'. Posted during raids, dogpiles, or hostile takeover attempts of a chat. Often spammed alongside defensive emote walls.
- mash it up58%
Caribbean slang — especially common in Jamaican patois — for dancing exceptionally well or dominating a performance or competition. When you mash it up, you own the floor, the stage, or the moment so completely that everyone has to acknowledge it. The phrase conveys destruction-as-excellence: you're so good you're wrecking the competition. It's hype, celebratory, and used both on the dancefloor and more broadly to mean succeeding at anything spectacularly.