Guides 90s slang
90s Slang: The Words and Sayings That Defined the Decade
Try the Valley Girl Translator Like, totally turn English into 80s Valspeak: grody, tubular, as ifIf you grew up in Ohio in 1996, you said "as if" at least once a day and thought you invented it. This 90s slang list starts there. It's sorted by what you were trying to say, not by the alphabet, because nobody ever opened a yearbook looking for the letter B. Most of the words came from one of three places: hip-hop radio, a Friday night sitcom, or a single movie about a girl in Beverly Hills.
Some of it never left. "My bad" made it through three presidents and a pandemic. "Talk to the hand" did not.
What Are the Most Popular 90s Slang Words?
As if, first. Then da bomb, phat, whatever, my bad, talk to the hand, all that and a bag of chips, and "not!" tacked on the end of a lie. Walk through any mall food court in 1997 and you'd catch four of those before your Orange Julius showed up.
90s Slang for Cool
Every decade needs fifty words for "good," and this one went overboard.
| Word | What it meant |
|---|---|
| Da bomb | The best thing going |
| Phat | Great, stylish |
| All that | Impressive, sometimes too impressed with yourself |
| All that and a bag of chips | All that, with extra |
| Dope | Excellent |
| Fly | Good-looking, stylish |
| Fresh | New, sharp, stylish |
| Tight | Really good |
| Sweet | Nice, great news |
| Off the hook | Wild, amazing |
| Bangin' | Excellent, often about a song |
| Hella | Very, from Northern California |
| Mad | Very, from New York ("mad cool") |
Hella and mad were the same word in two zip codes. A kid in Oakland and a kid in Queens could spend a summer at the same camp and fight about it for eight weeks straight.
90s Sayings for Shutting Someone Down
Sarcasm was the decade's sport. Most of these came with a hand move, which you needed, since the words alone could read as friendly.
| Saying | What it meant |
|---|---|
| As if! | No way, not a chance |
| Talk to the hand | Stop talking, I'm not listening |
| Whatever | I don't care (thumbs and fingers made a W) |
| Not! | Just kidding, said after a fake compliment |
| Psych! | Fooled you |
| Duh | That's obvious |
| Don't go there | Drop this subject now |
| Take a chill pill | Calm down |
| Don't have a cow | Don't overreact |
| Oh, snap! | Somebody just got insulted well |
| Bite me | Get lost |
| Loser | L on the forehead, no words needed |
90s Hip-Hop Slang
A good share of what your suburban cousin said in 1994 came straight from Black American speech and rap radio, usually a few years late. Yo! MTV Raps carried it into living rooms in Iowa. Plenty of this is older than the 90s, too. The decade just took it national.
| Word | What it meant |
|---|---|
| Word | I agree, that's true |
| Word to your mother | I swear it's true |
| Wack | Bad, lame |
| Dis | To insult someone |
| Homie | Close friend |
| Crib | Your house |
| Bounce | To leave ("let's bounce") |
| Buggin' | Acting crazy |
| Trippin' | Overreacting, or wrong about something |
| Props | Credit, respect |
| Bling bling | Flashy jewelry |
| Scrub | A guy with no money and big talk |
| Player hater | Someone jealous of your success |
| Gettin' jiggy | Dancing, looking sharp |
Scrub has a birth certificate, more or less. TLC's "No Scrubs" hit number one in 1999, and I'd bet every guy who heard it checked his own car. B.G. and the Cash Money crew did the same job for bling bling that year, with one song.
Where 90s Slang Came From: TV and Movies
Your whole school saw the same show on the same night, because there was nothing else on. A catchphrase could hit every lunch table in America by Friday.
| Line | Where it blew up | What it meant |
|---|---|---|
| As if! | Clueless (1995) | No way |
| Baldwin / Betty | Clueless (1995) | A cute guy / a cute girl |
| Monet | Clueless (1995) | Fine from far away, a mess up close |
| Not! | Wayne's World | Just kidding |
| Yada yada yada | Seinfeld | And so on, skip the boring part |
| Eat my shorts | The Simpsons | Get lost |
| How rude! | Full House | That was mean |
| Did I do that? | Family Matters | Oops, played innocent |
| Show me the money! | Jerry Maguire (1996) | Pay up |
| Wassup! | Budweiser ads (1999) | Hello, shouted with your tongue out |
Clueless alone gave us a small dictionary, and Amy Heckerling, who wrote and directed it, built much of that talk herself from time spent listening to Beverly Hills teens. Not all of it caught on. Nobody I can find ever said "Baldwin" and meant it, outside of a sleepover in Sherman Oaks.
Early Internet Slang From the 90s
AOL mailed a free CD to what felt like every house in the country, and suddenly your dial-up line was busy and your mom couldn't call. Chat rooms had their own talk, and some of it outlived the entire company.
| Term | What it meant |
|---|---|
| A/S/L? | Age, sex, location, the chat room hello |
| LOL | Laughing out loud |
| BRB | Be right back |
| ROFL | Rolling on the floor laughing |
| Newbie | Someone new online |
| Flame | An angry message or post |
| Surf the web | Go on the internet |
| You've got mail | AOL's voice telling you someone wrote |
90s Slang vs Today
Most of it got replaced, not forgotten. Say "that's phat" to a 15-year-old in Tampa and watch them ask if you're okay.
For the current words, our Gen Z slang guide has the full list. Then there's the other direction. Paste a normal text into the Valley Girl Translator and you'll get the "like, totally" voice that started in the San Fernando Valley and was still hanging around the mall all through the 90s. The Gen Alpha Translator will show you how far things have gone since.
90s Slang Questions People Ask
What did 90s kids say for cool? Da bomb, phat and dope, mostly. Sweet and tight were the safe ones, the words you could say near a teacher. Around Sacramento you'd have heard hella stuck in front of any of them.
What does "as if" mean in 90s slang? No way. Cher fires it off all through Clueless, usually at some boy who should've known better, and teenage girls had it memorized by the time the VHS came out.
What does phat mean? Great or stylish. It's a spelling joke on "fat" that came out of hip-hop, and the fake backronym people pass around ("pretty hot and tempting") arrived later, after the word was already everywhere.
What does da bomb mean? The very best. "This pizza is da bomb." Spell it the bomb if you like. Spelling never stopped anyone at a Pizza Hut in 1998.
Is 90s slang coming back? Some of it. Dope and fly never fully left, "my bad" is still everywhere, and thrift-store kids in Portland say "as if" as a joke that's slowly stopped being one. Phat, I think, is gone for good.
What's the difference between 80s and 90s slang? Sound, mostly. The 80s had surfers and the Valley, with rad, gnarly and gag me. Hip-hop took over in the 90s, and sarcasm came along with it. Plenty slid across the line too, because bogus didn't check a calendar on New Year's Eve in 1989.
More word lists live on the guides page.