The Best List of 35 Gen Z Slang Words and Phases
Newsletter #12 in the series "Deep Thought Thursdays"
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“The ability to use language effectively in how you communicate with others is an essential part of the formula for meaning, contentment, happiness, and a sense of fulfillment!”
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On a personal note: Please excuse grammatical errors, typos, repetition, and any general nonsense, and such in this post. I am getting a bit older now, and I have about 20,000 pages of information that must get published before I leave the mortal coil. I simply write and publish more than my humble editors are able to correct. If you find enough errors you are welcome to contact me about being an editor of my work.
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This is a 5 minute read
It is a excerpt from the “Clear Communication Module” in the course on “How to Create a Self-Improvement Lifestyle”.
You can learn more about the entire series of free and for free courses on creating the Self Improvement Lifestyle by clicking below…
We are now in the midst of a sociocultural evolution. We have defined what we mean by a society—based on culture and social structure—and yet things are always changing. Now we can define socio-cultural evolution as the creation and change of social roles through new knowledge that changes and creates social rules. This evolution requires new words and phrases to describe what is happening.
I keep coming across words and terms that seem to be in common usage and yet I don’t know what they mean.
To solve the problem and get a bit more “with it” I spoke to one of my neighbor’s kids, a bright eight year old who seem to have his finger on the pulse of everything. He laughed and simply said, “you need to learn current slang.”
Back in the day I knew what “groovy” meant. Then over the years there was “hip,” ”radical,” “Down wit dat”, “that’s the shit,” “that’s crazy” ”bad (meaning good),” “phat” and of course “that’s stupid,” meaning the opposite of stupid.
Slang is an interesting thing. Words, and phrases common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. Slang often refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception. Now with memes, and the internet everyone seems to be in on it.
Linguists have no simple and clear definition of slang, but agree that it is a constantly changing linguistic phenomenon present in every subculture worldwide. Some argue that slang exists because we must come up with ways to define new experiences that have surfaced with time and modernity. Attempting to remedy the lack of a clear definition, however, Bethany K. Dumas and Jonathan Lighter argue that an expression should be considered "true slang" if it meets at least two of the following criteria:]
It lowers, if temporarily, "the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing"; in other words, it is likely to be considered in those contexts a "glaring misuse of register".
Its use implies that the user is familiar with whatever is referred to, or with a group of people who are familiar with it and use the term.
"It's a taboo term in ordinary discourse with people of a higher social status or greater responsibility."
It replaces "a well-known conventional synonym." This is done primarily to avoid discomfort caused by the conventional synonym or discomfort or annoyance caused by having to elaborate further.
Michael Adams remarks that "[Slang] is liminal language... it is often impossible to tell, even in context, which interests and motives it serves... slang is on the edge." Slang dictionaries, collecting thousands of slang entries, offer a broad, empirical window into the motivating forces behind slang.]
While many forms of lexicon may be considered low-register or "sub-standard", slang remains distinct from colloquial and jargon terms because of its specific social contexts. While viewed as inappropriate in formal usage, colloquial terms are typically considered acceptable in speech across a wide range of contexts, while slang tends to be perceived as infelicitous in many common communicative situations. Jargon is similar to slang but is a bit higher up the linguistic ladder, in that jargon refers to language used by personnel in a particular field, or language used to represent specific terms within a field to those with a particular interest. Although jargon and slang can both be used to exclude non-group members from the conversation, the purpose of jargon is said to be optimizing conversation using terms that imply technical understanding. On the other hand, slang tends to emphasize social and contextual understanding.
While colloquialisms and jargon may seem like slang because they reference a particular group, they do not necessarily fit the same definition, because they do not represent a particular effort to replace the general lexicon of a standard language. Colloquialisms are considered more acceptable and more expected in standard usage than slang is, and jargon is often created to talk about aspects of a particular field that are not accounted for in the general lexicon. However, this differentiation is not consistently applied by linguists; the terms "slang" and "jargon" are sometimes treated as synonymous, and the scope of "jargon" is at times extended to mean all forms of socially-restricted language.
It is often difficult to differentiate slang from colloquialisms and even high-register lexicon, because slang generally becomes accepted into common vocabulary over time. Words such as "spurious" and "strenuous" were once perceived as slang, though they are now considered general, even high-register words. The literature on slang even discusses mainstream acknowledgment of a slang term as changing its status as true slang, because it has been accepted by the media and is thus no longer the special insider speech of a particular group. For example, Black American Music uses a lot of slang based on nationality and origin. The use of slang is a combination of slurring and slurping words as a result. Nevertheless, a general test for whether a word is a slang word or not is whether it would be acceptable in an academic or legal setting, as both are arenas in which standard lexicon is considered necessary and/or whether the term has been entered in the Oxford English Dictionary, which some scholars claim changes its status as slang.
I could go on much deeper on this but I won’t. Here are some common slang terms I have come across in the last few years, with some basic definitions.
From low-key to vibing, learn about the origins of 35 different “Gen Z” slang by reading through this list of popular terms.
Affiliate Marketing: A process where publishers earn a commission by promoting a product or service made by another retailer or advertiser using an affiliate link. The affiliate partner is rewarded a payout for providing a specific result to the retailer or advertiser. Typically, the result is a sale.
Anti-Vaxxer: a person who opposes the use of some or all vaccines, regulations mandating vaccination, or usually both
Black Wall Street: This is the name that was given to the Black residential neighborhood and business district of Greenwood, in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the oil in the area generated a huge amount of wealth, and some Indigenous and Black landowners were able to share in the boom. Greenwood became one of the wealthiest Black communities in the US. The community had its own extensive infrastructure and was able to build and thrive to a level that other Black communities were often prevented from reaching. In 1921, a confrontation erupted between white and Black Tulsa residents after the arrest of a Black man on dubious charges. After a white mob looted and set fire to Greenwood businesses, the governor declared martial law. The National Guard arrived and pursued the mass arrest of Greenwood’s entire Black community, detaining thousands of people for several days. During that time, white mobs—including some individuals deputized by Tulsa police—killed as many as 300 Black people and burned thousands of homes and businesses, utterly destroying the Greenwood district. The anti-Black persecution continued in the aftermath: the perpetrators of the destruction were never prosecuted; insurance companies denied claims; and efforts to rebuild were suppressed by the local government.
Black Lives Matter: In February 2012, George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of Black teenager Trayvon Martin. In the aftermath, Black organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter to mobilize against racist violence and to spotlight the failure of the justice system to successfully prosecute such cases.
As greater attention was focused on police brutality and the shootings of Black people by police, such cases continued to spark outrage, bringing greater scrutiny and, in turn, greater momentum for the national and then global movement that Black Lives Matter became.
Critical Race Theory (often abbreviated CRT): This is an academic theory used to analyze systems through a lens of race and racism and their history in the US and the world. Though it is largely applied in legal research and discussed at the university level, it has become a flashpoint in the context of elementary and high school curricula. In particular, it has been attacked by those who disagree with the idea that many institutions are built on and enforce systemic racism. Proponents, on the other hand, accuse the theory’s critics of frequently misrepresenting it, the ideas behind it, and the ways in which it is taught or used as the basis for programs or policies.
Evergreen: For something to retain freshness or interest. perennial.
Gaslight: Manipulate (someone) using psychological methods into questioning their own sanity or powers of reasoning.
Cancel Culture: Cancel culture is a phenomenon in which those who are deemed to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner are ostracized, boycotted or shunned. This shunning may extend to social or professional circles—whether on social media or in person—with most high-profile incidents involving celebrities. Those subject to this ostracism are said to have been "cancelled".
The expression "cancel culture" came in circulation in the late 2010s and early 2020s and has mostly negative connotations, often used polemically by self-described advocates for free speech and against censorship. The term "call-out culture" is generally understood to be a more positive framing of the same concept.
Some critics argue that cancel culture has a chilling effect on public discourse, is unproductive, does not bring real social change, causes intolerance, and amounts to cyberbullying. Others argue that calls for "cancellation" are themselves a form of free speech, and that they promote accountability, and give disenfranchised people a voice. Still others question whether cancel culture is an actual phenomenon, arguing that similar forms of boycotting have long existed. While the careers of some public figures have been impacted by boycotts that have been widely described as "cancellation", others have complained of cancellation while continuing their careers as before.
This is the best commentary I have heard concerning cancel culture.
“I think that it’s important to stand vigilant on people’s behavior and really understand when they’re out of line and be able to handle it,” she said. “But I’m concerned about these areas: Suddenly you don’t have a job. Suddenly you can’t date a woman within the business or you’re going to get fired. They’re canceling books — classic books that no one can read. I don’t like that. There’s mistrust everywhere. So not only is there cancel culture, but there are culture wars. Schools are being politicized. But for the greater good of our children? No one’s really looking at that."
“There’s a disruption now. Disruptions are good. But imbalance isn’t," she added. "I hope to get back to some level of sensibility and fairness. So ‘cancel culture.’ The word itself scares me more than anything. It’s rigid, concretized thinking, which is not good. It’s got double edges on it. And who has the right to cancel?”
For the sake of the future of comedy, Hawn hopes audiences will continue to evolve. She adds…
“The level of sensitivity is so high that comedians are afraid to tell certain jokes the way they used to," she said. "And it’s a bit of a quandary for comedians; there are things you can’t say and so on and so forth. I mean, it’s fine. There are certain areas that I agree with. But the level of sensitivity is unforgiving. That’s not a good feeling when you’re in a creative mode.”
Juneteenth: On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed an executive order known as the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation, issued two years after the start of the Civil War, is often hailed as having ended slavery in the US, but its effect and intent was more narrow: it specifically freed the people enslaved in the territories still in rebellion against the Union. In Union border states and in Confederate territories captured by Union forces, slavery remained in place. Of course, it also remained in place in Confederate states, where the proclamation was rejected and ignored until it was able to be enforced by Union forces.
#Metoo: This] is a social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke.Harvard University published a case study on Burke, called "Leading with Empathy: Tarana Burke and the Making of the Me Too Movement" (2020). The hashtag #MeToo was used starting in 2017 as a way to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem.
The purpose of "Me Too", as initially voiced by Burke as well as those who later adopted the tactic, is to empower sexually assaulted people (especially young and vulnerable women of color) through empathy, solidarity, and strength in numbers, by visibly demonstrating how many have experienced sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.
Following the exposure of numerous sexual-abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, the movement began to spread virally as a hashtag on social media. On October 16, 2017, American actress Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter, "If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem," saying that she got the idea from a friend. A number of high-profile posts and responses from American celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence, and Uma Thurman, among others, soon followed.
Widespread media coverage and discussion of sexual harassment, particularly in Hollywood, led to high-profile terminations from positions held, as well as criticism and backlash.
After millions of people started using the phrase and hashtag in this manner in English, the expression began to spread to dozens of other languages. The scope has become somewhat broader with this expansion, however, and Burke has more recently referred to it as an international movement for justice for marginalized people.[23] After the hashtag #MeToo went viral in late 2017, Facebook reported that almost half of its American users were friends with someone who said they had been sexually assaulted or harassed.
The original purpose of "Me Too" as used by Tarana Burke in 2006 was to empower women through empathy, especially young and vulnerable women. In October 2017, Alyssa Milano encouraged using the phrase as a hashtag to help reveal the extent of problems with sexual harassment and assault by showing how many people have experienced these events themselves. It therefore encourages women to speak up about their abuses, knowing that they are not alone.[4][6]
Natural Immunity: Immunity that is naturally existing. Natural immunity does not require prior sensitization to an antigen(vaccination, etc.)
Slow Hustle: Approaching life with a sense of presence and attunement, slowing down to drink in the moments that really matter. At a more advanced level the term “slow hustle” has a connection to idea such as the “Law of Attraction” and the Taoist concept of Wu wei, the action that requires no action.
1619 Project: The 1619 Project is a long-form journalism endeavor developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine which "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States' national narrative." The first publication from the project was in The New York Times Magazine of August 2019 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in the English colony of Virginia. These were also the first Africans in mainland British America, though Africans had been in other parts of North America since the 1500s. The project also developed an educational curriculum, supported by the Pulitzer Center, later accompanied by a broadsheet article, live events, and a podcast. Historians, journalists, and commentators have described the 1619 Project as a revisionist historiographical work that takes a critical view of traditionally reverenced events and people in American history, including the Patriots in the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers, along with later figures such as Abraham Lincoln and the Union during the Civil War. On May 4, 2020, the Pulitzer Prize board announced that they were awarding the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary to project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones for her introductory essay.
The 1619 Project has received criticism from a number of historians, both from the political left and right, who question its historical accuracy. In a letter published in The New York Times in December 2019, historians Gordon S. Wood, James M. McPherson, Sean Wilentz, Victoria E. Bynum, and James Oakes expressed "strong reservations" about the project and requested factual corrections, accusing the project's creators of putting ideology before historical understanding. The scholars denied the project's claim that slavery was essential to the beginning of the American Revolution, as colonists wanted to protect their right to own slaves. In response, Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine, defended its accuracy and declined to issue corrections. In March 2020, after continued criticism of the project's portrayal of the role of slavery, The Times issued a "clarification", modifying one of the passages on slavery's role that had sparked controversy. In September 2020, controversy arose over when the Times updated the opening text of the project website to remove the phrase "understanding 1619 as our true founding" without accompanying editorial notes. Critics, including Bret Stephens of the Times, claimed the differences showed that the newspaper was backing away from some of the initiative's more controversial claims.The Times defended its practices, with Hannah-Jones claiming that most of the project's content had remained unchanged.
The project has also led to responses from politicians. Former California United States Senator and future vice president Kamala Harris expressed praise for the project, while then-president Donald Trump expressed uncertainty about the project's goals of rehashing select parts of history. In late 2020, upon learning of a claim that the California Department of Education was adding the project to the state curriculum, Trump noted that if true, federal funding would be withheld from the state's schools. Shortly after, his administration announced the 1776 Commission, whose goal was developing a "patriotic" curriculum. The commission was terminated by his successor, Joe Biden, on his first day in office. Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law in July 2021 barring the teaching of critical race theory, including any materials from the 1619 Project.
The project led to several media expansions. In 2020, The New York Times premiered a dedicated podcast series. In 2021, a book anthology of essays and poetry The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story was published, as well as a children's picture book The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson. In January 2023, Hulu premiered a six-part documentary TV series created by Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine.
Gender Fluid: Gender fluidity refers to change over time in a person's gender expression or gender identity, or both. That change might be in expression, but not identity, or in identity, but not expression. Or both expression and identity might change together.
Gen Z: Generation Z (or more commonly Gen Z for short), colloquially known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years.
GLBYQ2S: LGBTQ2S stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning, and Two Spirit. The term Two Spirit does not simply mean someone who is a Native American and/or Alaska Native (AI/AN) and gay. “Two-Spirit” is a term used within some Indigenous communities, encompassing cultural, spiritual, sexual and gender identity. The term reflects complex Indigenous understandings of gender roles, spirituality, and the long history of sexual and gender diversity in Indigenous cultures.
Great Resignation: The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit and the Great Reshuffle, is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grooming Abuse: Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. Children and young people who are groomed can be sexually abused, exploited or trafficked. Anybody can be a groomer, no matter their age, gender or race.
Low-key: A quiet event, without a great show of excitement:
Millennials: A person born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s; a member of Generation Y.
Menty b: A nickname for “mental breakdown,” the term has gained traction among Instagram and TikTok users, many of whom work it into their usernames and posts as a light way of describing emotionally heavy times. Etsy shops sell sweatshirts, hats, laptop stickers, keychains and mugs emblazoned with “menty b.”
Nepo baby: Nepotism baby, is a term referring to the children of celebrities who have succeeded in careers, usually the same, or adjacent, career to their celebrity parents. The implication is that these children are only successful because they have inside access because of their parents due to nepotism
Non-Binary: Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or female—identities that are outside the gender binary.
Prepper: A behavior and social movement of individuals or groups who proactively prepare for emergencies, such as natural disasters, as well as other disasters causing disruption to social order caused by political or economic crises.
Quiet quitting: This refers to employees who put no more effort into their jobs than absolutely necessary. A 2022 Gallup survey suggested that at least half of the U.S. workforce consists of quiet quitters.
Rage-applying: A type of quiet quitting for employees who feel underappreciated
Rizz: One's ability to seduce a potential (usually female) love interest.
The ick: An ick is a point at which your initial attraction to a person flips into a feeling of disgust. The causes are many and various, but once someone gives you the ick, all desire is killed. You only want to get away. You cannot ignore an ick, despite your better judgment.
Touch grass: Touch grass is used on the Internet to tell someone to go outside. The phrase also implies that the person the insult is directed to spends too much time online, and they physically need to get outside and “touch some grass” to reconnect with the real world.
-ussy: Yes, it’s what you think it is: an ending extracted from the word pussy that gets added to other words like robussy (meaning “robot pussy”) or dragussy (“dragon pussy”). On social media, -ussy is also used more generally (and nonsexually) to refer to objects or people with holes in them (calling a calzone a pizzussy, for example). Popular since at least the early 2000s and within the LGBTQ+ community, -ussy was originally used in terms like bussy (“boy pussy”) and mussy (“man pussy”). It’s very much an online thing.
Vaccine hesitancy: A delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use, or using certain vaccines but not others
-verse: An emoticon (Emoji) used to indicate indecision, skepticism, exasperation, and annoyance. This is one of the Emojis most difficult to define. It can indicate a wide range of emotions, including (but not limited to) those mentioned above.
Vibing: To have a good or positive relationship or feeling with something/someone. to have a good or positive feeling listening to music. hanging out; doing nothing; chilling.
Woke: An adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for American Left ideas involving identity politics and social justice, such as the notion of white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans. The phrase stay woke had emerged in AAVE by the 1930s, in some contexts referring to an awareness of the social and political issues affecting African Americans. The phrase was uttered in a recording by Lead Belly and later by Erykah Badu. During the 2014 Ferguson protests, the phrase was popularized by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists seeking to raise awareness about police shootings of African Americans. After seeing use on Black Twitter, the term woke became an Internet meme and was increasingly used by white people, often to signal their support for BLM, which some commentators have criticised as cultural appropriation. Mainly associated with the millennial generation, the term spread internationally and was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017.
Woke-washing and woke capitalism: Terms coined to describe companies who signal support for progressive causes as a substitute for genuine change. By 2020, members of the political center and right wing in several Western countries were using the term woke, often in an ironic way, as an insult for various progressive or leftist movements and ideologies perceived as overzealous, performative, or insincere. In turn, some commentators came to consider it an offensive term with negative associations to those who promote political ideas involving identity and race.
Most American citizens when asked, have had positive responses concerning
“Woke” thinking
https://ca.style.yahoo.com/gop-war-woke-most-americans-100008176.html
https://ca.style.yahoo.com/onpolitics-most-voters-term-woke-185339713.html
The Takeaway
Online slang is a window into communities and cultures. The internet exposes people to slang and other dialects or words that are sometimes specific to a different group of people and their experiences. It’s a glimpse into a different view of the world when we learn other groups’ slang or technical terms.”
“‘If a lion could talk, we should not be able to understand him’, Wittgenstein argued, because the language games of lions are too different from our own to permit understanding.”
A quote from the linguist and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
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About the author: Lewis Harrison, the creator of these Mini-courses, has been mentoring and coaching visionaries, world class athletes, and thought leaders for over half a century. The former host of an NPR affiliated radio show, he is the author of over twenty best-selling books on self-improvement, self-help, personal transformation, and human potential.
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