tea

Tea means gossip, or the inside story about someone’s private business. “What’s the tea?” means “what’s the gossip?” and “spilling the tea” means sharing it.

Tea as gossip

In slang, tea is juicy information, usually about drama, relationships or scandal. Merriam-Webster defines “the tea” as private or inside information. You can ask for it (“give me the tea”), share it (“spill the tea”), or quietly enjoy it without getting involved (“sipping tea”).

“Sipping tea” and the Kermit meme

“Sipping tea” means watching drama from the sidelines. It’s tied to a famous 2014 meme of Kermit the Frog drinking tea with the caption “But that’s none of my business,” which spread on Instagram that June. The joke: you’ve made a pointed observation, and now you’re pretending to stay out of it.

Examples

• “Okay, what’s the tea? Why aren’t they talking anymore?”
• “I have so much tea from the wedding.”
• “Not me sipping my tea while they argue in the comments.”
• “That’s the tea, sis.” (that’s the truth)

Where tea comes from

Merriam-Webster notes that “tea” for gossip appears in the vocabulary of gay Black communities in Harlem, recorded in a 1996 study by William Hawkeswood. The drag performer The Lady Chablis spoke of “my T,” meaning her business or truth, in John Berendt’s 1994 book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Merriam-Webster cautions, though, that her “T” may be wordplay on an existing meaning rather than its origin. RuPaul’s Drag Race, which began in 2009, made “spilling the tea” familiar to millions.

Related terms

• Spill the tea: share the gossip.
• Shade: a subtle insult.
• Receipts: proof.
• Subtweet: a post about someone that doesn’t name them.

See more in our Gen Z slang dictionary.