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This guide to Gen Z & Gen Alpha slang from Parents magazine is hilarious but also somewhat useful. Any list of subcultural lingo always makes me think of Megan Jasper making up a bunch of grunge slang for the NY Times.

Discussion  10 comments

Mike Akers

Fam, no cap these lists are always kind of cringe

Lisa S.

My tail end of Gen Z kid would find use of much of this slang "cringey". (Except the text abbreviations.)

Mud

I think you mean cheugy.

Lisa S.

LOL! Direct quote from the teen when asking her a week or two ago if anyone says "rizz": "That'd be cringey." Pretty sure cheugy is Millennial slang, at this point, especially if it has made the pages of Parents magazine. :D

Mud

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Jason KottkeMOD

My Gen Z kid had no idea what "cheugy" was. And she mocked the rest of the list pretty roundly.

Reply in this thread

Matt G

I have middle schoolers and I drove a school bus last year full of them. They said almost none of these things. Which is what makes these lists so funny. By the time you've decided to write an article like this, it's too late.

The one insult that consistently stuck out was calling someone a furry.

Rion

I wish these lists would acknowledge that much of Gen Z/A (and internet) slang comes from and owes credit to Black culture and LGBTQ+ culture. Some of these terms are decades old!

Jerm

Every time I see "sometimes it do be like that" written on the internet, I assume that the person who says it is the whitest person in the room.

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Mike F.

Despite working with/around teenagers, the fact that I'm WAY more familiar with the slang from the *19*20's....ummm....that says something about me, doesn't it...(?)
https://center.uoregon.edu/NCTE/uploads/2014NCTEANNUAL/HANDOUTS/KEY_1991992/Slangofthe1920s.pdf

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