If you’re a parent of a teenager, then understanding the words and phrases they use could feel like learning a foreign language. It can be hard to try and figure out what they mean when they say things like “chill” or “lit”.
Being on top of popular teen slang is essential for staying connected to your children’s conversations and culture to ensure their safety. That’s why we’ve created a dictionary of teenage slang to help you out.
If you want to communicate more effectively with your teens and gain valuable insights into their lives, our decoder can help you truly understand what they are talking about.
Table Of Contents
General Teen Slang Words: Harmless & Fun
Teens have a unique ability to invent catchy phrases that express their excitement or describe something cool, mostly to fit in with their peers. You can simply learn some of them to keep up with the latest communication trends. And who knows, maybe you’ll even impress your teen with your newfound coolness.
Dive into the world of teen talk with our new video!
AFK — Away from the keyboard, used to show that a person is offline or away from their device.
And I oop — Expresses surprise, shock, or embarrassment
Awks — An acronym for awkward
Bestie — Best friend
Bet — Short for “Of course”, “Absolutely”, or “Ok, for sure”
Boujee — Rich, luxurious, fancy
Bruh — Stands for “bro”, used to address someone in a casual manner
Bussin’ — Another way of saying really good, awesome, usually refers to food
Cap/No Cap — Short for lying and not lying
Dead/dying — Something so funny you can “die” laughing
Extra — Refers to someone who’s trying too hard or being over-dramatic
Fam — Family, used to indicate actual family or close friends
GTG — Got to go
Gucci — Something fancy, cool, or going well
HMU — stands for “hit me up”
JK — short for just kidding
Lit — Amazing, cool, or exciting
Sic/Sick — Cool or sweet
SMH — Shaking my head
Slay — Refers to someone stylish or successful
Sus — Stands for suspicious
Tea/Spill the tea — Gossip
WB — Welcome back, used to welcome someone who has returned to the conversation
YW — you’re welcome serves as a reply to thank you messages
Sex-Related Teenager Slang to Look Out For
The rise of social media has given way to the phenomenon of sexting, which has gained popularity not only among adults but also among teenagers. While adults may engage in sexting to add excitement to their relationships, it poses significant risks for teenagers, who are often targeted by sextortionists.
Except for slang, teens use emojis to code sex-related words. While emojis can be easy to understand, slang is much harder to decode, especially for parents. Below you’ll find the most popular words associated with adult topics.
ASL — Age/sex/location
Body count — The number of people someone has slept with
Cake — Another word for the bottom part of a body, butt, or ass
CU46 — Stands for “See you for sex”
Daddy — An attractive man, usually older, who conveys a sense of power and dominance
DTF — Down to f**k, used to indicate someone’s willingness to engage in a short-term sexual relationship
FBOI — F**k boy, usually refers to a man looking for sex
FWB — friends with benefits
LMP — May stand for ‘like my pic” or “lick my p***y”
Meal — Used to tell that someone looks attractive and appealing
Netflix and chill — An invitation to engage in sexual activity
Pull — Indicates someone’s ability to attract sexual partners
Skeet — To ejaculate
Smash — To have casual sex with someone or to hook up.
Snack — Refers to an attractive person
Thirsty — Desperate for attention, often with sexual subtext
Thirst Trap — A provocative photo, video, or comment posted on social media
Swoop — Getting a ride from someone
Thicc — Attractive, full-figured body
Zaddy — An attractive, well-dressed man of any age
Popular Slang to Code Drugs
Sexting isn’t the only thing that teens try to hide from their parents. Even if your teen doesn’t use drugs or other substances themself, they might have friends who have a great influence on them. Plus, there are lots of drug dealers online, especially on Instagram.
Baked/blown — Being high or under the influence of drugs, often marijuana
Blondie — Another word for marijuana
Break Green — Means to share marijuana with others
Cokehead/cokey — Codes for cocaine
Do a line/go skiing — Use cocaine
Gas — Stands for marijuana or describes something cool
Hookup — A person who sells drugs
Krunk — Extremely intoxicated with a combination of alcohol and drugs
Plug — A drug dealer or a person who can “connect” with someone who has access to drugs
Turnt/Turnt up — To be intensely excited or energetic often involves drugs or alcohol
Red Flag Teenagers Words
Sexting and drug codes are already dangerous when it comes to teen interactions online, but there are words with even more alarming connotations. These slang terms indicate a teen’s serious distress or thoughts of self-harm.
Some of the words below indicate that a teen wants to stay secretive because their parent is around. This means they have some secrets which can lead to potential dangers.
CD9 — Code 9, a short way of saying “can’t talk parents are here”
DIAF — Die in a fire
GALMA — Go away leave me alone.
LMIRL — Let’s meet in real life.
KMS/KYS — Kill myself, kill Yourself.
KPC — Keep parents clueless
POS — Parent over shoulder, also stands for piece of s**t
P999 — Parent alert
Stan — A combination of “stalker” and “fan” refers to an overly obsessed fan
Vaguebooking — An intentionally vague post or comment, usually on Facebook to attract attention, can sometimes indicate a cry for help
WWTP — Want to Trade Pics?
Stay Informed About the Slang Words Your Teen Uses
You can’t stop your teen from using slang, but you can at least know if they’re using any dangerous words and phrases in their chats. All thanks to mSpy and its social media and text monitoring.
You can even set restrictions for slang words you find dangerous and receive real-time notifications when they are used. And don’t forget about emoji codes that teens use to communicate with each other and hide things from parents. mSpy can catch them too.