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Teen Slang: An A to Z Guide for Parents

Ellie Macsymons·Mar 12, 2019

As a parent, you may find that as your child enters the teen years they seem to develop their own separate language that you can’t quite wrap your head around.

Majority of teen slang words have always come from popular music, movies and celebrities, but these days, with the influence of viral videos, social media posts and funny memes on the internet, there seems to be even more teen slang words to keep up with.

The rise of the millennial generation and its technology has seen new trends and popular slang words, that were once colloquial to a certain area or group of people, resonate with teens across the world with the help of social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Twitch and Youtube. Within days or even hours sayings like ‘bomb af’, ‘throw shade’ and ‘left on read’ can become day to day sayings in your teenager’s life, leaving you, the parents, in the dark on what on earth it is your kids are talking about.

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You may think that the silly words your teenagers say aren’t relevant to you, but as the power of social media becomes more and more prominent in our daily lives, you may find yourself wanting to read up on what things mean, not only to look ‘cool’ but for your children’s safety too. For instance, a lot of slang words like ‘thirsty’, ‘Netflix and Chill’ and ‘Pied’ have deeper meanings than you might think in teen language, so it’s important that you get to know what these terms imply to ensure your teenagers aren’t texting, talking or doing anything you’d deem inappropriate.

Staying up to date with teen slang is also a great way to bond with your kids and become more relatable to them which, in turn, will probably make them more likely to talk to you about things that might be going on in their lives. Although most parents would love to communicate more with their kids it can be easier said than done, especially when they hit the teenage years, which is why we’ve created an A-Z guide of all the most popular teen slang words and sayings for 2019. With this, you can easily find definitions for common slang words your kids might say and always have it to refer back to, allowing you to communicate better with your kids no matter what age they are.

SLANG

Awks Embarrassing
Bae Baby
Bare loads/a lot
Basic Used to describe someone interested in trendy or popular things
Bent To go mad at someone. ‘My mum went bent at me’
Bomb (AF) When something’s really hot/trendy
Blud Mate / bro
Buff Attractive, of boys
Chang chill & hang out
Clout being famous or having influence
Cray Crazy
Cured A word to describe your when you’re in a bad mood
Curve / Swerve To reject someone
Extra Describes something as being over the top/dramatic
Fam Close friends
Fire When something’s really cool/hot/trendy
Fit Attractive, of both sexes
Ghost / Ghosted Completely Ignoring Someone – usually via text/social media
Goals Normally spoken about relationships or people. Someone or something a person admires.
Grim Something Gross
Hench Attractive, of boys
Hot Attractive, of both sexes
Jokes Funny
Left on read When someone reads a message and doesn’t reply
Lit Something really good
Low-key A word to describe something/someone you secretly like but probably shouldn’t ‘I low-key fancy him’ ‘I low-key like that outfit’
Ming Something Gross
Minute / Time When you’ve been doing something for a while ‘it’s been a minute’
Netflix n Chill To meet under the pretense of watching Netflix/TV together when actually planning to meet for sex
Peng Attractive, of both sexes
Phat another word for cool
Pie / Pied To reject someone
Salty Bitter
Savage When somebody says something extremely insulting. It describes a person or a phrase.
Sick Good
Snack A way to desrcibe someone attractive
Sound another word for cool
Squad Referring to a/your friendship group
(Throw) Shade To make a passive-aggressive insult at someone
Tea When someone spills gossip on someone ‘spill the tea’
Thirsty Being desperate for something (usually sex)
Ting Another word for thing
Totes Very

ACRONYMS

AF As fuck
BB Baby
BC Because
FOMO Fear of missing out
GD Goddamn
GOAT Greatest Of All Time
IK I Know
IKR I Know, Right
ILY I Love You
IRL In real life
LMAO Laughing my ass off
LOL Laugh out loud
MF Mother F*cking
OG Another word for original
OMG Oh My God
ROLF Rollin on the floor laughing
SHIP When you approve of a relationship/ couple
SMOL A way to say “small” when describing something cute
TBH To be honest
TFIF Thanks F*ck It’s Friday
TGIF Thank God It’s Friday
THICC Can either describe people that are bigger than others or body parts that are bigger than usual. Normally describes someone’s booty
TTYL Talk To You Later
WTF What the F*ck?
WUUT What you up to
YOLO You Only Live Once
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