THE BRAINROT DICTIONARY

gyat

exclamation / noun

An exclamation of surprised admiration — a compressed, shouted rendering of 'god damn' that this website is legally named after.

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skibidi

adjective / free-floating syllables

A word with no fixed meaning at all, from the animated 'Skibidi Toilet' series — deployable as good, bad, or pure noise.

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67

exclamation

A number shouted for reasons no adult has successfully explained — meaning roughly 'so-so,' or more accurately, nothing.

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brainrot

noun

Low-effort, high-compulsion internet content — and the cognitive state of consuming too much of it. Also the name of this entire vocabulary.

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bruh

interjection

A one-syllable review of a situation that has left you with nothing else to say — over a century old and still load-bearing.

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clanker

noun

A derogatory term for robots and AI — borrowed from science fiction and pointed, mostly jokingly, at the machines taking over daily life.

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yeet

verb / exclamation

To throw something with full force and zero ceremony — or the shout that accompanies the throw. Occasionally, a whole philosophy of letting go.

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sheesh

exclamation

An exclamation of impressed disbelief — hyping up something (or someone) so hard the vowel has to stretch to carry it.

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rickroll

verb / noun

The bait-and-switch prank of disguising a link that leads to Rick Astley's 1987 hit — the only 2007 meme still fully operational.

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rizz

noun / verb

Charisma, specifically the ability to charm a romantic interest — shortened from the middle of the word itself.

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aura

noun

Invisible cool points — an imaginary score of effortless composure that can be gained, lost, and publicly audited.

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bussin

adjective

Exceptionally good — used almost exclusively about food.

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goated

adjective

Elevated to Greatest Of All Time status — the acronym GOAT converted into a verb and then a compliment.

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slay

verb / interjection

To do something impressively well, especially with style — praise that now ranges from sincere to fully reflexive.

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ate

verb

Performed so flawlessly that nothing was left for anyone else — the past tense of eating a performance alive.

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based

adjective

Admirably true to yourself regardless of what anyone thinks — the approving opposite of cringe.

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it's giving

phrase

"It has the energy of…" — a way to name the vibe something radiates, with or without finishing the sentence.

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fire

adjective

Excellent — the internet's default word for anything great, in continuous service since 1990s hip-hop.

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lit

adjective

Exciting, excellent, or fully alive — usually describing a party or moment that has reached maximum energy.

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drip

noun

Exceptional style — an outfit, jewelry, or overall look so put-together it's practically dripping off you.

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flex

verb / noun

To show off — displaying wealth, skill, or status on purpose. A 'weird flex' is showing off something nobody would brag about.

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slaps

verb

Is excellent — said of music first and food second. A song that slaps physically moves you.

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W / L

nouns / verdicts

Win and Loss, detached from the scoreboard and applied to everything — a good day is a W, a bad haircut is an L, and both are announced publicly.

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hits different

phrase

Lands with unusual emotional force — the same thing, experienced in circumstances that make it feel entirely new.

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da bomb

noun phrase

The absolute best — the definitive 90s superlative, pronounced with the 'da' or not at all.

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phat

adjective

Excellent, in deliberate 90s hip-hop spelling — the same sound as 'fat,' respelled so you knew it was a compliment.

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dope

adjective

Cool, excellent, impressive — a hip-hop staple since the 80s that never fully left the rotation.

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all that

phrase

Impressive, superior, the complete package — with 'and a bag of chips' available for anyone exceeding even that.

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props

noun

Proper respect, publicly awarded — credit where credit is due, in one syllable.

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fly

adjective

Stylish and smooth — the reigning word for looking good from the 70s through the 90s, and drip's direct grandfather.

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sick

adjective

Awesome — surf and skate culture's great inversion, where the worse the word sounds, the better the trick was.

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bling

noun

Flashy jewelry and the lifestyle attached to it — the sound of light bouncing off a diamond, spelled out.

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swag

noun

Effortless cool, 2011 edition — confidence you could allegedly possess, radiate, and chant. The 2010s' most merchandised word.

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on fleek

phrase

Flawlessly done — coined for eyebrows, applied to everything, and owed entirely to one six-second video from 2014.

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mid

adjective

Mediocre — aggressively average, and said with far more contempt than 'average' ever carried.

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Ohio

adjective (yes, really)

Weird, cursed, or off in a way that defies explanation — the state, repurposed as a quality.

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ratio

noun / verb

The public defeat of getting more replies than likes — or having your reply out-like the post it corrects.

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cooked

adjective

Doomed, finished, beyond saving — the state of having no remaining moves, announced with total resignation.

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glazing

verb / noun

Praising someone so excessively it becomes embarrassing — fandom past the point of dignity.

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sus

adjective

Suspicious or untrustworthy — decades-old shorthand that one 2020 video game made permanent.

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NPC

noun / adjective

A person who seems to run on a script — borrowed from gaming's 'non-player character' and aimed at the aggressively unoriginal.

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fanum tax

noun / verb

The levy a friend imposes on your food by simply taking some — named after the streamer who made it law.

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touch grass

phrase

A prescription to log off and go outside — the internet's way of telling someone they've been online too long.

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cringe

adjective / noun

Secondhand-embarrassing — trying so visibly for approval that observers physically wince. The eternal opposite of based.

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simp

noun / verb

Someone doing way too much for someone who barely notices them — devotion far past the point of dignity or reciprocation.

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salty

adjective

Bitter about a loss or slight, and visibly so — upset in a way that leaks out no matter how hard you play it cool.

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extra

adjective

Excessively dramatic — bringing production value, volume, and theatrics to situations that asked for none of it.

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savage

adjective

Ruthlessly bold — saying or doing the brutal thing with zero softening and zero visible remorse.

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rent free

phrase

Occupying someone's thoughts constantly, at no cost — what you say about the thing you claim not to care about, five posts later.

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skill issue

noun

A dismissal that blames the sufferer: the problem isn't the game, the system, or the universe — it's that you're bad at it.

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Karen

noun

Shorthand for a certain flavor of entitled public meltdown — demanding the manager, the refund, and the rulebook, all at maximum volume.

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wack

adjective

Bad, lame, substandard — the official opposite of dope since the graffiti era, and still quietly on duty.

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as if

interjection

"Absolutely not, in your dreams" — the definitive 90s dismissal, delivered with a scoff and immortalized by one 1995 movie.

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talk to the hand

phrase

A conversation-ending dismissal with built-in choreography: the palm goes up, the discussion goes nowhere.

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noob

noun

An inexperienced player — or, in its sharper sense, one who refuses to learn. Gaming's foundational insult, still in service.

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pwned

verb, past tense mostly

Utterly defeated — 'owned' with a typo that became the official spelling of 2000s gaming dominance.

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epic fail

noun

A failure so complete it deserves documentation — the 2000s internet's favorite genre, back when 'epic' still meant something.

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thirsty

adjective

Visibly desperate for attention or approval, usually romantic — wanting it so obviously that the wanting becomes the story.

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sigma

noun / adjective

A self-sufficient lone wolf who wins without needing the hierarchy — now used almost entirely as an ironic compliment.

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lock in

verb

To summon total, distraction-proof focus — the announcement that grinding has officially begun.

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crash out

verb / noun

To lose composure spectacularly and act against your own interests — a public, often self-aware meltdown.

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mewing

verb / noun

Pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth in hope of a sharper jawline — a fringe orthodontic theory turned classroom gesture.

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delulu

adjective

Cheerfully delusional — believing something with zero supporting evidence, as a lifestyle choice.

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aura farming

verb / noun

Deliberately doing cool things to accumulate aura — cultivating mystique the way a video game character grinds XP.

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main character

noun / adjective

Someone living like the camera is on them — aspirational when you do it, a diagnosis when someone else does.

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side quest

noun

A spontaneous detour from your actual plans, undertaken purely because it appeared — gaming's optional missions, applied to errands.

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demure

adjective

Modest and considerate, said with a wink — a 2024 catchphrase that taught the internet the word and then wore it out.

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ghosting

verb / noun

Ending a relationship or conversation by simply vanishing — no explanation, no goodbye, just an unanswered chat that grows colder by the day.

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stan

noun / verb

An intensely devoted fan — from a 2000 song about fandom gone too far, reclaimed by fandom as a badge of honor.

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vibe check

noun

A spot inspection of the energy — of a person, a room, or a plan. Pass and things proceed; fail and everyone quietly knows.

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tea

noun

Gossip, or the juicy truth — served hot, spilled generously, and sipped while maintaining plausible deniability.

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era

noun

A self-declared life phase — 'in my healing era,' 'in my villain era' — framing whatever you're currently doing as a chapter with a theme.

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crunk

adjective

Hyped to maximum party energy — the mid-2000s Southern rap word for a room that has left calm permanently behind.

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YOLO

acronym / battle cry

'You only live once' — 2012's official justification for every questionable decision, shouted at the moment of commitment.

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squad

noun

Your core friend group, branded — and 'squad goals,' the 2015 practice of pointing at better friend groups aspirationally.

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bae

noun

Your significant other or crush — a shortening of 'babe' that briefly became the internet's official term of endearment.

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shook

adjective

Rattled to your core — so surprised or unsettled that composure has left the building and is not answering calls.

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no cap

phrase

"No lie" — the certification that you mean it. 'Cap' alone means the opposite: that's a lie.

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bet

interjection

"Okay, deal, say less" — agreement compressed into one syllable, occasionally with a hint of challenge.

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lowkey / highkey

adverbs

Volume controls for opinions: 'lowkey' softens a confession, 'highkey' commits to it loudly.

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chat

noun of address

The invisible audience you address as if your life were a livestream — 'chat, is this real?' asked of an empty room.

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let him cook

phrase

"Don't interrupt — this might be genius" — permission for someone to finish an idea that's either brilliant or a disaster.

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fr / ong

phrases

The sincerity stack: 'fr' (for real) confirms truth, 'ong' (on god) swears to it, and stacking them raises the oath level.

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mood

interjection

"That is exactly how I feel" — total relatability compressed into one word, usually replied to an image of an exhausted animal.

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my bad

phrase

"My fault, I own it" — the two-word apology that came off the basketball court in the 90s and never left the language.

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word

interjection

"Agreed — that's the truth" — hip-hop's original one-syllable confirmation, the direct ancestor of 'bet' and 'fr.'

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hella

adverb / adjective

Very, extremely, a lot of — the Bay Area's great intensifier, fiercely regional and eternally exported.

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fo shizzle

phrase

"For sure" — run through the -izzle transformation that briefly made the early 2000s speak an entirely optional second language.

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lol

acronym / tone particle

'Laughing out loud' — which stopped meaning laughter decades ago and became the internet's most important tone-softener.

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