A lot of today’s slang is born on TikTok, or at least goes mainstream there. A phrase from one video becomes a sound, the sound becomes a trend, and within weeks people who have never opened the app are saying it. This guide explains the TikTok words you’re most likely to hear, with a full entry for each.

Lifestyle trends with names

• Girl dinner: a snack-plate meal instead of cooking.
• Girl math: joking logic for justifying a purchase.
• Bed rotting: spending the day in bed on purpose.
• Goblin mode: being cheerfully lazy and messy. Oxford’s 2022 Word of the Year.
• Hot girl walk: a long walk thinking about gratitude, goals and confidence.
• Soft life: choosing comfort and ease over constant hustle.
• Brat summer: 2024, lived in the spirit of Charli XCX’s album.
• De-influencing: creators telling you what not to buy.

Video formats and captions

• GRWM: get ready with me, the chatty makeup-and-outfit video.
• OOTD: outfit of the day.
• POV: point of view, a caption that puts you in a scene.
• Photo dump: a casual batch of camera-roll photos.
• Face reveal: when a faceless creator finally shows their face.
• Algospeak: code words people use to avoid being suppressed by the algorithm.

Words that went viral

• Rizz: charm, especially when flirting. Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year.
• Unspoken rizz: flirting with just a look.
• Delulu: delusional, usually about a crush or a big dream.
• Aura: effortless cool factor, measured in “aura points.”
• Glazing: over-the-top praise.
• Crash out: losing your temper completely.
• Chopped: ugly, unattractive.
• Lore: someone’s backstory.
• It’s giving: it has the vibe of.
• Side-eye: a look of judgment, made famous by “bombastic side eye.”
• Brain rot: endless low-quality content and what it does to you.
• Mewing: a jawline trend that became a silent meme.

Dating talk

• Talking stage: the early texting phase before dating.
• Sneaky link: someone you’re seeing in secret.
• Soft launch: hinting at a relationship online.
• Hard launch: going official on social media.
• Pick-me: someone who puts others down to win approval.

Aesthetics that blew up

• Clean girl aesthetic: slicked-back hair and a polished, natural look.
• Coquette: bows, lace and soft pinks.
• Mob wife aesthetic: fur coats, gold jewelry and drama.
• Coastal grandmother: linen, white kitchens and seaside calm.
• Old money aesthetic: the understated look of inherited wealth.
• Cheugy: trendy a few years too late.

Why so much slang starts on TikTok

Dictionaries have noticed. Oxford says “brain rot,” its 2024 Word of the Year, first gained traction particularly on TikTok among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and that its use rose 230% that year. Dictionary.com’s 2024 Word of the Year, “demure,” took off in August 2024 through creator Jools Lebron’s “very demure, very mindful” videos. Collins chose “brat” for 2024, on a list that also included delulu, brainrot, yapping and looksmaxxing.

It isn’t new, either. In 2022, about 93% of the more than 340,000 people who voted in Oxford’s public poll picked “goblin mode,” a phrase TikTok had just made famous. “De-influencing” made Oxford’s 2023 shortlist, and Dictionary.com added both “bed rotting” and “girl dinner” in early 2024. In 2025, Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year announcement singled out “six seven” as the hit Gen Alpha slang term of the year.

The format explains a lot of it. Sounds get reused thousands of times, so a phrase spreads with the audio. Comment sections repeat the joke until it’s a catchphrase. And the algorithm shows a trend to people far outside the community it started in, which is also why some words, like “crash out” or “boujee,” arrive in the mainstream without the history that came with them.

For more, see our Gen Z slang dictionary, the internet slang guide, the aesthetics list or the full A–Z index.