As a youth mental health reporter, I’d like to think that I’m up to date with what young people are saying.
Then I spent a weekend volunteering with elementary, middle and high schoolers at a youth camp.
I heard “huzz,” “larping” and “fries.” One counselor was designated “unc.” When I watched kids throw up an OK-hand gesture and say “fairs,” I had to stop to ask what all of these words meant.
Gen Alpha’s slang can feel like an entirely different variant of the English language, shaped by TikTok, memes and Twitch streamers.
Here are some of the Gen Alpha slang terms you’re likely to hear these days, and what they actually mean.
Fairs + OK hand signal
“Fairs” is a short way of saying “fair enough.” What originated as British slang spread on TikTok as a way to acknowledge
something as being a valid answer or an understandable result of a situation.
“I remember one time, like, I told a girl I liked her, and she said ‘ew’” and I was like ‘fairs,’” TikToker @thakiddsam jokingly explained in a June video.
Throughout the weekend, the kids I was with used the saying in conjunction with an OK hand symbol made with the thumb and index finger, in reference to the 👌 emoji. Online, the phrase is sometimes accompanied by AI-generated photos of Wallace from “Wallace and Gromit” using the symbol.
Larping
LARPing, or live-action role-playing, might conjure up visions of Dungeons & Dragons costumes and renaissance fairs. But young people are repurposing the word “larping” to call out someone they think is inauthentic.
Going to a fitness class just for the photos is larping being a pilates girl. Asummer internship is larping a corporate 9-to-5. Coming into Manhattan from Long Island for the day is larping New York City.
The word is another way to say poser, try-hard or fraud.
“It’s someone who is performative in the way that they're dressing or acting or doing something, and it's not actually authentic to who they are as an individual,” Morgan Hurlock of Philadelphia previously told USA TODAY. “It's almost like you're calling someone out.”
The huzz
One camper told me that her boyfriend was “huzz,” to which a counselor jokingly replied, “you’re too young to have a husband!”
Despite how the word sounds, it’s not short for marriage, the kids explained. The term refers to a crush or romantic partner. It originally was a derogatory way to refer to a group of women, as a distorted spelling of the word “hoes,” but the word has taken on a more general use.
“The typa stuff that only happens to me at school infront of the huzz,” one TikTok joked over a compilation of embarrassing moments.
The term was popularized by streamer Kai Cenat around February 2023, according to Merriam-Webster.
Unc
If you haven’t recognized any of the words on this list yet, you might be Unc.
The word, shorthand for “uncle,” is a term for someone perceived as out of touch or old, not unlike “Boomer.” The word originated within African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and grew more popular through use in rap and hip hop music, according to Merriam-Webster.
The kids at camp quickly found an obvious candidate for the word in a 50-something-year-old volunteer in our group, who they deemed “camp dad.” As they rejoiced in teaching him slang throughout the weekend, it was clear that “unc” could be a term of endearment.
But you don’t have to be anywhere near your 50s to start facing the unc allegations, as the cut off seems to be getting younger by the day.
“When I remember my siblings are slowly reaching unc status,” 19-year-old TikToker Dasha Sprinkle wrote over an audio about turning 35.
Fries
Perhaps the most surprising new slang term I heard that weekend was “fries.”
I was familiar with the “Just put the fries in the bag” meme, an online insult that insinuates that the person should stop talking and get back to a fast-food job.
But kids have shortened the phrase to simply saying “fries” as a quick way to tell someone to wrap it up or get to the point.
The slang originated with a 2022 Facebook post from user Andre Jamar Milburn, reading, "I AINT SEEN YOU SINCE HIGHSCHOOL," with his response "JUST PUT THE KETCHUP IN MY BAG BRO 🤣🤣,” according to knowyourmeme.com, and eventually went onto incorporate fries instead of ketchup.
Online, the shorthand may be accompanied by the fries and peace sign emoji 🍟✌️.
What does this slang say about young people?
Words like “unc” and “fries” might sound like nonsense, but this slang category reveals the way young people are constantly trying to determine what’s "cringe," what’s authentic and what’s trying too hard. Social slang has existed in every generation, but the virality and speed of the internet have accelerated the way Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s slang spreads and evolves.
Much of young people’s slang today revolves around social judgement, whether it’s the “larping” calling out posers for being performative or “unc” to indicate someone as being out of touch.
“We learn about ourselves and where we stand in the world only from the reactions and responses we get from others,” Don Grant, a media psychologist who is the National Adviser of Healthy Device Management for Newport Healthcare, previously told USA TODAY. “For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, that public sphere is online. “They grew up with everything online becoming their social currency and the litmus of who they are.”
Rachel Hale’s role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach her at rhale@usatoday.com and @rachelleighhale on X.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I spent a weekend with Gen Alpha. I needed a translator
