Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

shout-out

American  
[shaut-aut] / ˈʃaʊtˌaʊt /
Or shoutout

noun

  • shout-outs
    plural
  1. Informal. a quick public expression of thanks, admiration, etc..

    I’d like to give a big shout-out to my mom who’s in the audience tonight.


Usage

What does shout-out mean? A shout-out is a short public acknowledgement of someone or something, especially by name. It’s usually to recognize someone in appreciation of them or something they did. Shout-outs are typically given in a public setting, such as on the radio, during a live performance, or on social media. Shout-out is informal. It’s commonly used to start a sentence that announces a shout-out, as in Shout-out to the people in the back!  Less commonly, shout-out is also used as a verb, as in Let me shout-out a few people real quick. It’s very commonly spelled as shoutout. Example: Thanks to your shout-out in the last post, I gained a ton of followers.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of shout-out

First recorded in 1990–95; shout + out

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:

"I'm pleased because I think there's a big shout-out for Bradford," he says.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

“I’ve got a special shout-out for OG,” Hart said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

By the way, we should give a shout-out to the law professors who devised and promoted shield laws—David Cohen, Rachel Rebouché, and Greer Donley.

From Slate ● May 15, 2026

Additional programming matters to sports media partners as evidenced by the shout-out the project received from Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley at his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026

Monks Mound and its fellows were, in part, a shout-out to the world—Look at us!

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Then last Christmas, NeeDoh kept getting shout-outs in “haul talk” videos, where TikTok users show their followers what they got for the holidays.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026

Within the song’s verses, Kiedis gives shout-outs to other artists he admires, including Charlie Parker and Julia Butterfly Hill.

From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2026

He even gave the title, Marty Supreme, several shout-outs in the new collaboration, building on an already savvy marketing campaign for the film.

From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2025

Both companies received shout-outs from Nvidia on the earnings call.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 20, 2025

Netflix itself, which gets a couple of shout-outs, including a parody of “The Crown” focused entirely on the stuffed animal collection of Britain’s Prince Andrew.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2024

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember new words for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com