What Are Some Synonyms For Top Slang Words?

Slang, like trends, comes and goes. If you’re savvy though, you may have noticed that some words sound eerily similar to each other. For example: Boo and bae? Only a few letters apart, and they mean exactly the same thing.

As more and more people communicate through the internet, slang is able to travel from community to community; this makes for a beautiful mixing of language over time. So the slang you’re using today has its own distinct synonyms—especially if you start looking at slang words used in recent years.

WATCH: Words That The Internet Has Changed

Chances are you’ve seen many of these slang words on social media sites like Instagram and Twitter. But do you know which ones are synonyms?

lit

Lit became popular in 2016 and has endured ever since. It is used as a hashtag (#lit) and takes different forms (litty). As a slang word, lit can describe an event, like a party, that is exciting or cool. It’s also a synonym for “intoxicated” (e.g., “The drinks at the party had me lit”).

If you’re tired of using lit, try epic or turnt. Epic was more common in the late 2000s, but you’ll still find it used to mean “absolutely awesome” today. Turnt can be considered a true synonym for lit because it’s also used to mean “a state of inebriation.”

spill tea

No, we’re not talking about the English breakfast you have every morning. If you’ve never had a hangout where you spill the tea with your friends, you’re missing out. If you’re spilling tea, you’re telling your friend some juicy gossip or exchanging the dramatic stories in your lives.

Remember the 2012 song “Let’s Have a Kiki” from the Scissor Sisters? A kiki is a gathering of close friends with beverages and good vibes provided. Of course, a kiki is not complete without some healthy gossiping to release stress. The drag community especially uses this slang word.

Next time you have tea to spill to your friends, invite them for a kiki instead!

snatched

Having someone say you look snatched is a huge compliment. It means that you look precise and put together. This is another one that trickled out from the gay community to the rest of us. Snatched joined our slang lexicon in the mid 2010s.

We have Peaches Monroee to thank for popularizing its synonym on fleek back in 2014. It’s a dead-on match for snatched; they can be used interchangeably. It’s perfect for describing an outfit or eyebrows!

WATCH: Why Was The Phrase "On Fleek" So Popular?

look

Speaking of looking snatched, you especially want your look to be snatched every day. A look is an outfit or a vibe that is achieved by curating your hair, clothes, and demeanor. When someone says you’re serving a look, they mean you’re giving the whole package: you look great from head to toe.

If look isn’t your speed, try fit or lewk. The British use fit to mean someone is attractive, but Americans use fit as a shortened outfit. Fit can be used in real life without seeming too much like slang, while lewk is more stylized.

squad goals

Instagram is rife with pictures of friends captioned squad goals. That squad is the epitome of friendship. No pic tagged #squadgoals is complete without coordinated posing or outfits.

If that’s a little too much, there are some alternatives. Fam is a great one that signifies closeness and trust: your friends are your family.

No new friends is sassy. It’s perfect for saying, “My friends are perfect, and we complement each other perfectly. No new friends needed.” This one can also be used as the hashtag #nonewfriends.

flex

This slang term isn’t for your muscles. To flex is the 21st century’s answer to showing off. A flex can be anything from showing up in a complete look to an event, to buying an expensive watch and posting about it on Instagram. Rappers have been using it since the ’90s, and it became popular to the mainstream in 2014.

But you can do more than flex. You can stunt! It’s a perfect synonym that has a theatric flair to it, as if you’re walking across a stage in a drop dead gorgeous suit. This word has been around equally as long as flex. Urban Dictionary has its first entry for the word in 2003.

Gucci

This word is based on the luxury fashion house Gucci. But it has nothing to do with handcrafted leather. Gucci is slang for “great,” “awesome,” or saying you’re doing fine. This slang skews more toward Generation Z, which could be due to Lil Pump’s song Gucci Gang. It was released in 2017 when the rapper was a teenager and popularized the word.

So if you still want to use a word with a similar vibe (but not sound younger than you are), there’s also slang like hundo p, ight, and the everlasting chill. All of these words convey things are great or fine.

high key

To be high key is to be very much assertive, in your face, and out there. It’s a versatile bit of slang that can punctuate anything that comes after it (e.g., “I highkey NEED that purse!”) or can be used similarly to lit (e.g., “That party was high key, it had the best music.”)

Enter two little letters that can save you some text message real estate. V (for “very”) and P (for “pretty”) can be used as intensifiers (e.g., “That event was v classy” or “The movie was p cool”).