Word list · 16 words
Dead internet slang
Internet slang has a short life. A word spreads, gets picked up by brands and parents, and the people who started it move on. This list collects the words that have faded or died, and says what each one meant when it was everywhere.
Whether a word is fading or dead is an editorial call, not a measurement, so every entry is labelled as our judgement and dated. Some come back: if one of these turns up in your feed again, it may be ironic, or it may be a revival.
Kept on this device only, for the daily recall in My words.
The words
Bae
Bae is a term of endearment for a boyfriend, girlfriend or someone you love, a shortened form of "babe" or "baby".
Text & Internet Slang
Cray
Cray is a short form of "crazy", meaning wild, outrageous or unbelievable; "cray-cray" doubles it.
Text & Internet Slang
Epic Fail
An epic fail is a complete, spectacular failure, especially one where success should have been easy.
Internet & Digital Culture
Fetch (Mean Girls)
Fetch, as slang, means "cool" or "great", but only inside the 2004 film Mean Girls, where a character keeps trying to make it catch on.
Text & Internet Slang
Finsta
A second, private Instagram account with a small hand-picked following, used for candid posts the main account is too curated to carry.
Internet & Digital Culture
Goblin Mode
Behaving in a deliberately slovenly, self-indulgent, unapologetic way that rejects social expectations — especially the curated ones.
Internet & Digital Culture
Lolcat (I Can Has Cheezburger?)
A lolcat is a photo of a cat captioned in deliberately broken English ("lolspeak"), as in "I can has cheezburger?".
Internet & Digital Culture
Milkshake Duck
Someone adored by the internet for a single charming thing, whose ugly history surfaces almost immediately afterwards.
Internet & Digital Culture
On Fleek
On fleek means perfectly done, flawless or spot-on, especially of eyebrows, hair or an outfit.
Text & Internet Slang
Pwned
Pwned (from "pwn") means beaten, humiliated or taken over, especially in an online game.
Internet & Digital Culture
Subtweeting
Posting about a specific person without naming or tagging them, so they get no notification but everyone who knows, knows.
Internet & Digital Culture
Swag
Swag, in slang, means a fashionable, confident style or way of carrying yourself; it is short for "swagger".
Text & Internet Slang
Totes
Totes is a playful short form of "totally", used for emphasis or agreement: "totes amazing", "totes, see you there".
Text & Internet Slang
Vaguebooking
Posting a deliberately cryptic status — no names, no details — engineered so readers ask what's wrong.
Internet & Digital Culture
YOLO
YOLO stands for "you only live once": a reason, or an excuse, to do something fun, bold or a bit reckless.
Text & Internet Slang
Zoom Fatigue
The specific exhaustion produced by sustained videoconferencing — reported as distinct from ordinary meeting tiredness, and tied in one 2024 study more to how often calls happen than to how long…
Internet & Digital Culture