Slang and abbreviations: 50 words to use

Slang words are often used to communicate with a young audience or niche community. They can provide a specific emotional color for content, keeping the brand "on the same wavelength" with customers and highlighting the identity. Like any tool, slang in content creation should be used with extreme care, as it can attract or repel your audience.

Based on Statista's research, the younger generation perceives slang in advertisements better, while this figure goes down from generation to generation. Take a look at the image below to see the correlation.

Also, when deciding to use slang in your company-level communication with users, you must consider that the slang vocabulary grows and changes quickly; it is often affected by the latest popular and viral trends, so something used a few years ago can be a "cringe" today. To provide you with the current wide-used slang words, our team prepared the list below with the context examples — add them to your vocabulary to make it "lit."

The popular British English slang

1. "Aye up, friends," you can say to friends in Yorkshire instead of general greetings.
2. "Let's go! There are bare people at this party tonight." This phrase doesn't mean you were invited to a naked party. In British slang, "bare" means "a lot of/very much."
3. "Pick up some meat and bits and bobs for dinner," you can ask, meaning buying meat and additional things for dinner. This phrase also implies different small tasks, random items, etc.
4. "Blimey! I can't believe we won!" This word is an old euphemism, like "gosh," but it is still used to describe extreme surprise (like "wow"). The younger generation can use it in the ironic sense.
5. "Take your brolly with you! It's going to rain soon." Yes, you understood right that the brolly is a slang word for an "umbrella."
6. "Our team hopes you are chuffed with this article!" We want to ensure you like it. Instead of its original "plump" in British slang, this word now means something delighted.
7. "Make a short pause and crack on reading this article!" means proceed to read it as quickly as possible or with more effort. This phrase matches best with a situation when you need to describe that, after some pause, something was done very fast and effortlessly.
8. If you want to say comfortable, pleasant, or satisfactory you can use the word "cushty" and the British people will easily understand what you meant.
9. "What about a cuppa?" someone can ask you at 5 o'clock. As you know, tea is an important part of British culture, so don't refuse a cup of tea.
10. "We are pretty sure you are a dab hand in your area." This means we have no doubt you are a professional in your job.
11. "Let's go for a quick elevenses of coffee and snacks before diving back into work." you can offer to your colleagues. Elevenses is a short break to drink with a small amount of food between breakfast and lunch.
12. "Winning this lottery was a complete fluke!" – when you have unexpected luck, you can use the word "fluke" to describe it.
13. "Once you integrated Lingohub into our development process, managing multilingual content became hunky-dory." This slang word describes the situation when all goes really well.
14. "There was a bit of a kerfuffle in the translation, but everything turned out jammy in the end." In this sentence, the "kerfuffle" means some commotion or fuss, while "jammy" means something lucky or fortunate.
15. "This text is absolutely lush!" Use the word "lush" to confidently describe something delightful, indulgent, appealing, attractive, or even some extravagant experience.
16. "We were feeling peckish, so we stopped for a nosh at the cafe, and their homemade pastries were so moreish!" So, "peckish" is when you feel a little hungry, "nosh" describes some snacks or light meals, and we say "moreish" when the food is so delicious or satisfying that it makes you want to have more of it.
17. Remember Sheldon from 'The Big Bang Theory'? He's definitely a sarky person, always making sarcastic comments.
18. "We hope you aren't shattered at this stage," our team would ask to ensure you aren't extremely tired or exhausted.
19. "Do you often yak for hours with friends?"- When you hear such a question, notice that "to yak" describes talking or chatting, especially uninterruptedly.
20. "Despite encountering umpteen challenges in your localization efforts, try Lingohub to streamline the workflow and improve efficiency significantly." The word "umpteen" means a huge number of things/actions/etc.

We hope you enjoyed this part and replenished your vocabulary with new phrases and words. But remember that English is a pluricentric language, meaning each region has its own language version and slang. When localizing your content to the USA, for instance, you should understand what slang is used in this particular region. Take a look at the provided examples.

The popular American English slang

1. When you have a casual, informal conversation, you can describe it as a "chit chat."
2. Use the "down to Earth" expression to describe someone practical, realistic, humble, or grounded. "He stayed down to Earth, even after winning."
3. Dramatic or excessive behavior, when it is over-the-top and unnecessary, is described by the word "extra." For instance, "Instead of just buying a cake for the birthday, she bought ten cakes. That's seriously extra."
4. When someone suddenly ends all communication without explanation, the Americans use "to ghost." Example: Instead of discussing the issue, (he/she) chose to ghost, which means (he/she) ignores the calls and messages."
5. When you want to ask if the clothes really suit you, ask people to keep it one hundred (being completely honest). "Can you keep it one hundred with me and tell me if my outfit looks ok?."
6. Similar to the previous is the phrase - no cap. "We waited in line for hours, no cap!"
7. Lit. You already saw this word at the start of this article, and it means something awesome, amazing, or exciting. 8.Do you remember those advertisement jingles from childhood that keep spinning round and round in your head? They are rent-free, which in American slang means they occupy the mind without control.
8. If your product or service impresses or succeeds, generation Z can say, "Hey, this company slays the market." The "slay" conveys a sense of confidence and dominance in a particular context.
9. Are you someone's stan? This phrase can be used to ask if the person is a devoted fan of someone else.
10. Ask your audience to invite their squad to participate in your initiatives. "Squad" means a close-knit group of friends.
11. When someone offers to have some tea, be ready to hear some scandals or intriguing details. "Spill the tea" or "have some tea," in slang, means gossiping and sharing the latest news.
12. Vibe check! It's often used humorously or lightheartedly to gauge how people are feeling or to check in on someone's emotional state.
13. When you want to say that someone's style is so "dripping" or "dripped out," use the following phrase: "He has a drip that turns heads."

In addition to slang words, there is a comprehensive list of abbreviations commonly used by today's generation. These words can be used effectively in advertisements when character count is limited.

ASAP - As Soon As Possible

BID - Break It Down

FOMO - Fear of Missing Out

FWIW - For What It's Worth

HBU - How About You?

IRL - In Real Life

ICYMI - In Case You Missed It

JOMO - Joy of Missing Out

LOL - Laughing Out Loud

LMK - Let Me Know

MBN - Must Be Nice

TBH - To Be Honest

YOLO - You Only Live Once

YW - You're Welcome

WOM - Word of Mouth

Examples of outdated English slang

To get you additional information, we also collected examples of outdated slang that isn't widely used now, especially by new generations:

1. Bee's knees - Something excellent or outstanding.
2. Buggin - Acting irrationally or being upset.
3. Copacetic - Something in order or satisfactory.
4. Cool cat - A relaxed and elegant person.
5. Dapper - Neat and stylish (in appearance).
6. Freaky-deaky - Bizarre (in a playful context).
7. Groovy - Cool or fashionable.
8. Pad - Home or apartments.
9. Peeps - Friends or close associates.
10. Rad - Something awesome or cool.

We hope this article has given you some great ideas and a good understanding of popular English slang. Feel free to use it to make your content go viral. See ya!