40 Everyday Slang Words Invented On The Internet - Hoy Actual (2023)

The Internet thanks you for these common "words" in your dictionary.

There's no denying that the internet has changed the way we live, from Amazon's overnight deliveries to social media, giving us respite from stagnant work weeks. With 77% of Americans using the internet every day, and with one in four saying they are "almost always online," it's no wonder that the influence of the internet has spilled over into our language as well. In fact, you can speak the language of the Internet without even realizing it. The proliferation of Internet slang is so ubiquitous that many of the words we use every day were once Internet jargon. We've rounded up 40 coined slang words, from "fail" to "FOMO." For the stories behind some of the more common words, check out the surprising origins of everyday slang you use so often.

Read the original article on Best Life.

1
OMG
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With more and more conversations taking place without seeing the other person's face or hearing their voice, people need a way to express shock or excitement beyond just using a few exclamation points. Thus, OMG was born. For a charming regional language, check out all the slang you'll only hear in the Midwest.

2
Mr. A.S.
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Much internet slang stems from a desire for brevity when typing, especially when typing on a mobile phone. So obvs is a great way to say of course without having to use that many letters. It also sounds great in convo, obvs.

3
Personal attacks
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Personal attacks used to be a legitimate way to express your feelings of discord. However, we now live in an age of irony, so saying you feel personally attacked simply means that you are referring to something you don't want. To make sure you don't feel embarrassed as you get older, here are all the slang words you can't use in your 40s.

4
JK
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When all your communication is via text messages and texts, it's really important to let people know you're actually joking. JK is a great way to do it without those pesky letters. It's also great in conversation if you don't have the energy to put into words how you feel. If you play JK at the end, everyone will know that you are still cool.

5
gentlemen
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Like obs, srsly is another Internet abbreviation that has had its vowels removed. It takes a lot of defiance to speak up. If you're still stuck in the glory days of grunge, check out these 1990s slang words no one uses anymore.

6
Incidentally
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By the way, now you can say BTW in spoken conversation. If you're feeling particularly cheeky, shorten it to BT-dubs, since the letter W takes so long to pronounce.

7
dumpster fire
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When an online argument turns into a catastrophe, it's a dumpster fire. But many other things can also be a dumpster fire, like your first attempt at making osso buco or the last bachelor party you attended. To get slang trivia and other info delivered to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

8
lots of laughter
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LOL starts with a positive intention, letting people know that a laugh is being made. But if someone tells you LOL, you can be sure they are definitely not LOL. If it's in the text, maybe it's a smirk. perhaps.

9
nightmare fuel
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Nightmare fuel used to be used to describe images or stories you found on the internet that guaranteed nightmares. Personally, it can be used to describe anything from a bad date to the current political climate. To test your knowledge of local lingo, can you guess the most common slang in your state?

10
Pitiful
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With people sharing their entire lives online, it's easy to see a lot of social media behavior that makes you cringe. But people don't confine their embarrassing moments to their online lives, so there are plenty of opportunities to see disgusting things in real life.

11
best friend
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A BFF has been your best friend since the web's healthiest days, and there's absolutely no shame in using the acronym when you want to talk about your number one ride or dead donut.

12
Bae
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There is some disagreement about the origin of bae. Some say bae is short for babe, while others say it means before anyone else. One thing's for sure, however: A term that used to only appear on the internet is now a perfectly acceptable way of addressing your boo.

13
limited company
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Wat is definitely the answer when something doesn't make sense and leaves you completely overwhelmed. That means you're too confused to include the H and question mark necessary for the "what?" question. It popped up on a message board, then turned into a meme, and here we are.

14
Prost
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Rekt is a slang term from online gaming. It's short for "wreck," which means to lose in a way that leaves you completely humiliated and ruined. It can also be shorthand for too drunk.

15
shock
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If you see something that shakes you to the core, you're shaken. If it shakes you so much that you seriously question whether you actually believe existence is real, then you're shaken.

16
normal
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A normal person is someone who doesn't look at weird parts of the internet, has relatively mainstream tastes and opinions, and probably doesn't care about any meaning of these words.

17
frequently asked questions
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People have been creating FAQ lists for decades, but the first known use of an FAQ was on the ARPNET SPACE email list in the 1980s. Yes, that's right: NASA has to be thanked for that. If you have any FAQs you want answered, check out these 30 amazing facts that will change the way you see the world

18
snail mail
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Before the Internet, snail mail was mail. However, with the advent of email, ordinary email suddenly started to slow down... you could say it snail-like.

19
take a shower
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When you ghost someone, you disappear without a trace, as if you never existed. The use of the word became popular with online dating and the ease of disappearing from someone's life.

20
selfie
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People have been taking pictures of themselves for centuries, but thanks to the internet, we know just how popular this pastime is. The word was even added to the Oxford Online Dictionary in 2013.

21
cover face
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When you have to slap your forehead because someone said or did something really stupid, that's a slap in the face. Yes, we have the word internet to thank for — and the emojis that are often used to express it.

22
troll
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Internet trolls have been around since the early 1990s. Originally, the word was associated with fishing, like slowly pulling on a bait in hopes of catching something. While this is still true to some extent, it also involves people who enjoy mocking others online. If the trolls have pushed you over the edge, you should know the Top 30 Reasons You Should Detox Yourself.

23
Yolo
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YOLO, short for You Only Live Once, was once an acronym used almost exclusively on the Internet until Drake brought it mainstream with his song "The Motto."

24
squeeze
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Squee is a word for extreme happiness originally associated with internet fans trying too hard. However, now we can all agree that, for example, when you see a picture of a pig in rubber boots, it is a very natural sound. If you're up for a fight, you should meet a cute dog who's been waiting for his master's train all day long.

25
FOMO
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The constant posting of exciting events on social media leads to FOMO, or the fear of missing out. But of course you're afraid of missing out - after all, the internet tells us you only live once.

26
newcomer
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Newb, short for newbie, refers to someone who doesn't have much experience, but is willing to learn, especially in games. A novice should not be confused with a rookie, someone who knows nothing but doesn't want to learn.

27
woo woo woo
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Woot was originally an exclamation point for players who found treasure - wow, loot! It is now used both online and offline to express general excitement.

28
NSF
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NSFW doesn't have to be a thing until the internet makes it easy to click on the wrong stuff and accidentally stumble across something that's decidedly not safe. Now, this acronym can be used offline as any risky abbreviation.

29
lots of laughter
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Lulz is a derivative of LOL. Basically, when you do something for fun, you do it for laughs.

30
not like
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This form of dissimilar doesn't mean "not like" but is used as a verb meaning to no longer like something that you used to like. This is due to the mechanics of using Facebook - it's the opposite of likes.

31
Depp
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Derp is the sound you make when you do something stupid like the latest duh. A Derp can also be a person or animal that might go out to lunch, such as a dog that always comes in through a glass door or a cat with a pair of doll panties on its head.

32
BRB
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BRB is a hangover from the early days of chatting, when you sent those three letters to let people know you were back. Now people say this so that the people they actually hang out with know they're going out for a second.

33
fail
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Another word from games that seeps into the language of our time, failure can be a noun, as if the cake you were trying to make collapsed in the oven. It can also be a phrase you rudely yell at someone who has made a mistake.

34
jas
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Yass took to the stage when a Lady Gaga fan tweeted how excited he was to meet the singer. It's basically the same as yes, but you can add as many A's or S's as you want to express varying degrees of excitement.

35
they are drunk
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Duckface—the term for pursed lips in photos—began to seep into the real world around the time Myspace launched, and was a natural byproduct of the selfie explosion around the same time.

36
real life
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With so much going on online these days, it's important to let people know what's happening in real life or in real life.

37
beard
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Neckbeard is a pejorative term used to describe someone who likes the more nerdy side of Internet culture: someone who can't grow a full beard, wears a fedora and isn't very social. Now the term has become a generic term for uncool people on the internet.

38
Pani
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M'lady is the standard bearded greeting for any man introducing a woman, and it's also a shorthand for calling someone online for behaving in a bearded manner. But you can also tell your friends and let them know that you're about to do something horrible, or convey another person's distasteful ways without going into too many details.

39
to the ground
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Lurker started out as someone who read message boards and never commented or participated. Someone could be lurking anywhere these days, whether they're snooping around for chips at a party or accidentally liking a photo of you on Facebook from six years ago.

40
long story short
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It's becoming more and more obvious that people on the internet will never read the whole thing, so it's worth starting with a long or exhaustive explanation TL;DR or too long; I haven't read it. Now you can ask the person who told you a long story about TL;DR and they will understand exactly what you mean.