Slang dictionary

big mood

[ big mood ]

What does big mood mean?

Online, people post big mood as a way to react to or describe something they find relatable or resonant in some way. Big mood can at once capture a feeling at a specific moment but also comment on a broader sentiment about life in general. Yeah, existential stuff …

Big mood is also often posted with a joking, judgmental, cheerful, or ironic tone in reaction and in response to content that is variously seen as quirky, genuine, dramatic, or ridiculous.

Related words

tfw, BDE, burn meme, 😍 Smiling Face With Heart-Shaped Eyes emoji, sorry not sorry, 💯 100 emoji

Where does big mood come from?

Emotional reactions play a big role on social media, so it’s no surprise that the internet slang has developed a number of conventions to express them.

In everyday language, mood means “a state of quality of feeling a particular time.” Credited to Black Twitter around 2015, mood spread as slang for “emotion” or “feeling” more generally. Mood evolved as a way to respond to various content—other messages, screenshots, images, memes, videos, and so on—that they found relatable or resonant in some way. As a reaction comment, mood joins such earlier internet expressions as same, it me, goals, and TFW (that feeling when).

Big mood emerges on Twitter in 2017, with the adjective big indicating that the emotion or energy a user feels in the content is considered particularly intense or notable. By 2018, big mood was already being discussed as a hot new meme in early 2018.

Hip-hop artists Drake and Future released a track in 2019 called “Big Mood.” The lyrics feature various instances of big mood as a way of proudly expressing “This is how I do things,” as in the chorus:

Ayy, things going my way, big mood
Exotic up the driveway, big mood
Double up the contract, big mood

 

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Examples of big mood

Dictionary.com's Word of the Year Is a Big Mood
Stephanie Mlot, Geek.com (headline), December 2019
I've shown this set of pics to two friends and they were like that's ~hot~ so big mood
@your_mxxnlight, January 2019

Who uses big mood?

Big mood is often posted a simple, two-word reaction or comment:

People also characterize a person, creature, or situation, not just the feeling, as a big mood, implying the totality of what is being commented on expresses a specific but relatable emotion.

Big mood is also used as kind of modifier.

The exact sentiment of big mood is subtle, nuanced, varied, and depending on context, very often a hyper-specific or over-the-top scenario that suggests “This is where I am at right now.” Funny situations, feeling pumped up, struggling to function being a human, wanting to just be lazy on Friday in your PJs, presenting yourself with an on point look—all can be big moods.

People also additionally describe a big mood by inserting another modifier before mood.

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Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of big mood like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of big mood that will help our users expand their word mastery.