bestie
Americannoun
-
besties
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bestie
First recorded in 1990–95; best ( def. ) + -ie ( def. )
Explanation
You know that one friend who knows you better than anyone, your very closest pal? That's your bestie. The word bestie is an informal shorthand for "best friend." It's been used for decades by people describing their closest confidants, but it began appearing in dictionaries as a slang term some time after 2010. You might use bestie interchangeably with "BFF" to describe the one person you can trust completely to keep your secrets and save a seat for you on the bus no matter what.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Some fans are curious to see whether her one-time bestie actress Blake Lively, who drew Swift into a bitter legal battle with Lively's It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, will be invited.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
Some fans are curious to see whether her one-time bestie actress Blake Lively, who drew Swift into her legal saga with her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, will attend.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
When Yan Junjie and Yun Yeyi left Chinese AI company SenseTime they were banking on a future where AI was more than a glorified search engine, and could eventually be your new work bestie.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
The following day was my friendiversary with my bestie, Jose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2026
“You guys always have plans. You won’t mind if I borrow your bestie for a couple of hours, will you?”
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
But a couple of years into this project, I couldn’t sit down at a dinner party without the guy to the right and the woman to the left telling me about their chatbot besties.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2026
The setup is designed to foster a community atmosphere, as if you are trying on clothes at home with your besties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
"He's desperate to go down water slides and he's lined up his little besties to have sleepovers and to go on play dates," she said.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
But I’m so glad she came and we low-key became besties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2025
My besties guarded my secret feelings with their lives, but it was my little brother who accidentally let the cat out of the bag.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
