What are They Even Saying?
We’ll start this post by reminding all the parents out there of the first rule of teen slang:
It’s for teens.
Try it out at your own peril. At worst, your teens will roll their eyes and groan, and at best, you might score one or two hipster points. Which brings us to another rule. About trying to be the hip parent:
Give up the notion you were ever hip in the first place.
Maybe you were. Maybe you weren’t. Either way, it’s irrelevant. Trying to be contemporary teenage hip will have the opposite effect than you intend: nine times out of ten you’re going to embarrass yourself and your children. We’re offering this list not so you can trade slang with your kids and their friends, but so that when you monitor your teenager’s texts, IMs, DMs, emails, and social media accounts, you’ll have a slightly better chance at understanding what they’re talking about.
Because honestly, texting and chatting have given us more acronyms and funky phrases than military jargon, legalese, and corporate speak combined. It’s an entirely different language, and if you don’t speak it, you might miss what’s happening right under your nose, all day every day – so we scoured the interwebs here, here, and here to compile this list of slang phrases for your edification.
Teen Slang as of April 2018
Harmless Phrases
- Bruh: Variation of brother and bro.
- Fam: Circle of close friends
- GOAT: Greatest Of All Time
- TBH: To Be Honest
- Lit: Something cool, awesome, excellent
- I’m weak: Something funny
- Hundo P: One hundred percent, for sure, certainly
- Gucci: Cool, stylish
- Squad: Circle of close friends
- Bae: Before Anyone Else. Term for a boyfriend or girlfriend.
- Curve: To reject someone romantically
- Low Key: Keep what I’m about to say a secret. Same as the phrase DL or “on the down low.”
- Salty: Bitter, angry, or annoyed at someone or something
- Skurt: To leave.
- Throw shade: To cast aspersions on someone either with words or actions
- Straight fire: Anything hot or trendy.
- Sip tea: Mind your own business
- Scoop: To pick someone up, as in give them a ride.
- Finna: About to do something. From the southern phrase “fixing to.”
- Yeet: An expression of excitement
- Dip: To leave
- AMOSC: Add Me On Snapchat
- Rn: Right now
- Geekin: Laughing like crazy
- Bet: A sure thing
- WRU: Where are you?
- WUD: What are you doing?
- LYAAF: Love You As A Friend
- NC: No Comment
- IDKWTD: I Don’t Know What To Do
- WSID: What Should I Do?
- 123: I agree
- HML: Hit My Line, meaning call or text.
- OBS: Obviously
- OFC: Of course
- ACC: Actually
- POA: Plan of action
- IMO: In My Opinion
- GOMB: Get Off My Back
- Huggle: Hug and snuggle
- Ship: Relationship
- IDEK: I Don’t Even Know
- IKR: I Know, Right?
- SMH: Shaking My Head
- Dime: An attractive person. A 10 on a scale of 1-10.
- Woke: Socially, politically, and culturally aware
- Savage: Blunt, undiplomatic public speech
- SWYP: So What’s Your Problem?
Red Flag Phrases
- KOTL: Kiss On The Lips
- WTH: What The Hell
- AF: As F***, meaning extremely. “She’s woke AF.”
- 121: Chat privately
- AEAP, ALAP: As Early, or As Aate As Possible
- Clouds: Vapor exhaled from a vaporizer
- F2F: Face to Face
- LMIRL: Let’s Meet In Real Life
- 1174: An invitation to meet at a wild party
- 99: Parents no longer around
- MOS, POS: Mom/Parents looking Over Shoulder
- KPC: Keeping Parents Clueless
- WTTP: Want To Trade Pictures?
- S2R: Send to Receive, referring to pictures
- Sugarpic: A nude, partially nude, or suggestive picture
- TDTM: Talk Dirty To Me
- Zerg: To bully someone. Adopted from a gaming phrase meaning to gang up on someone
- KMS, KYS: Kill My Self, Kill Your Self
- 82: I Hate You
- A3: Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace – may mean an arrangement to have sex, buy drugs, or fight.
The Reddest Flags: Illegal/Drug-Related Phrases
- Blow: Cocaine
- Pearls: A marijuana joint or blunt that’s rolled well
- Bud: Marijuana
- Trees: Marijuana
- Earwax, Wax. Honeycomb, Honey, Honey Oil, 710, Butter (or Budder), Amber, Nectar, Black Glass, Shatter, Errl: All terms for Butane Hash Oil (BHO), a highly potent and very dangerous marijuana extract.
- Dabbing: Using BHO
- Blasting: The process of making BHO at home
- Blasters: People who make BHO at home.
- 420: General term for anything to do with marijuana
- DOC: Drug Of Choice
- Yayo: Cocaine
- Baseball: Crack Cocaine
- Skrill: Money
- CID: Acid
- E: Ecstasy
- Hazel: Heroin
- Blue Boogers: The result of inhaling Adderall or Ritalin
- Pharming: Stealing prescription drugs from parents
- Pox: Opium
- Robo-tripping: Drinking cough syrup to get high
- Tweaking: High on amphetamines or hallucinogens
- White Lady: Cocaine or heroin
- Wings: Cocaine or heroin
- Speed, Crank, Uppers ,Crystal, Tina: Can be general terms for amphetamines or a specific term for methamphetamine
- Demmies: Demerol
- O, Oxy, Kickers, OC, Blues: Oxycontin – a prescription opiate
- Captain Cody, Cody, Schoolboy: Cough syrup with Codeine
- Percs: Percocet or Percodan
- Doors & fours, Pancakes and syrup: Codeine with glutethimide
- Vikes, Lorries, Watsons, 357s: Vicodin, Lorcet, or Loritab
- Pink O, Stop Signs, Pink: Opana – an opiate.
- China Girl, Chinatown, Tango and Cash: Fentanyl, a very strong prescription opiate.
- Rids, Ritties, Skippy, Skittles, Study Buddies: Ritalin
- Black Beauties, Truck Drivers, Wakeups: Adderall
Fair warning: this list is subject to change at any moment. At the rate teen slang transforms, chances are many of these phrases will be outdated by the time we publish this list.
But we have to try to keep up – and so do you!
