Cited Sources
I didn't make all this up. Most of it, anyway. Here's where the data comes from and who deserves credit for the parts that are actually smart.
Where the Slang Comes From
The dictionary is built by scraping several corners of the internet on a regular basis, then running everything through an AI to organize it. Here are the corners.
The Wikipedia of slang, if Wikipedia let anyone with a grudge write definitions. About 40% of the entries are genuinely helpful. The other 60% are someone's ex's name. I filter aggressively.
Specifically r/GenAlpha, r/brainrot, r/teenagers, r/GenZ, r/OutOfTheLoop, r/slang, and r/FellowKids. OutOfTheLoop is the best source because it's full of adults going "what does this mean?" which is exactly my demographic. FellowKids is where I go to feel less alone.
I search for slang explainer videos. The logic: if someone made a 12-minute YouTube video explaining what "skibidi" means, that term has officially gone mainstream. The explainer-industrial complex is a reliable signal.
TikTok's public trending hashtag data. This is where I catch terms before they hit Reddit or YouTube. Yes, I'm scraping TikTok's ad platform to build a dad joke website. The future is beautiful.
When Merriam-Webster adds a slang term, that term has been dead for at least six months. But they're thorough and accurate, which is more than I can say for most of my sources. Including myself.
How It Gets Processed
Raw scraped data is a mess. Here's what cleans it up.
Every scraped term gets run through Claude (Haiku model) to deduplicate, classify, score, and write the parent translations. An AI helping a dad understand his kids. We truly live in a society.
Where all 280+ terms live. It's a Postgres database that I'm using to store slang definitions, which is probably not what the Supabase team envisioned when they built it. Sorry, and thank you.
The site itself. Next.js for the framework, Vercel for hosting. Deploys in about 45 seconds, which is faster than my son can explain what 'aura' means.
The Smart People
The Deep Lore section cites actual research by actual experts. These are the people who study language professionally, as opposed to me, who studies it by eavesdropping on 6th graders at the carpool line.
Language & Slang Evolution
Aleksic, Adam — Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language. Knopf, 2025.
The single most useful book for understanding how internet slang actually works. Adam is a linguist who goes by 'the Etymology Nerd' online and his research is the backbone of the Deep Lore section. If you read one thing, read this.
Aleksic, Adam — Interviews: Figma Blog (Jan 2026), NPR Weekend Edition (Jul 2025), Scientific American (Aug 2025)
The man is everywhere. Rightfully so.
Green, Lisa J. — African American English: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge UP, 2002.
Essential reading for understanding where a huge portion of American slang actually originates. If you've ever said 'slay,' 'vibe,' 'chill,' or 'lit,' you owe a debt to AAVE.
Touma, Esteban (Babbel) — Quoted in Upworthy, September 2025
Professional linguist who helped me feel less insane for thinking slang cycles are speeding up. They are. He confirmed it.
Internet Culture & Meme Dynamics
Broderick, Ryan — Garbage Day newsletter
One of the best internet culture newsletters. Referenced via Cory Doctorow's Pluralistic (Feb 2025). If you want to understand why the internet is the way it is, subscribe.
Kaul, Abhinandan — “From Plato to Skibidi”. Medium, December 2025.
A philosophy-meets-brainrot essay. The title alone deserves an award.
Meltwater — “What was the most viral slang term of 2024?”. December 2024.
Data analytics company that tracked slang virality with actual numbers instead of vibes. Refreshing.
Neon Music — “6 7 Meme Psychology: Gen Alpha's Meaningless Slang Is Genius”. October 2025.
Made a genuinely compelling case that meaningless slang is not, in fact, meaningless. I think about this article a lot.
Dazed Digital — “From looksmaxxing to mogging: How incel language went mainstream”. February 2025.
Covers how terms from niche internet communities crossed over into everyday teen usage. Important context for the toxic terms in the dictionary.
Irony, Radicalization & the Dark Corners
Crawford, Blyth, and Florence Keen — “Memetic Irony and the Promotion of Violence within Chan Cultures”. CREST / King's College London, 2020.
Academic paper on how 'it's just a joke' stops being just a joke. Heavy reading but important if you want to understand why some memes feel off.
Dreisbach, Tom — “How Extremists Weaponize Irony to Spread Hate”. NPR, April 2021.
Accessible NPR piece on irony poisoning. Good starting point if the academic papers feel like too much.
EU Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) — “It's Not Funny Anymore”. 2021.
The EU wrote a whole report about memes being used for radicalization. The title is doing a lot of work and I respect it.
GNET / Stoner, Erin — “Schrödinger's Joke: The Weaponisation of Irony and Humour in the Alt-Right”. July 2023.
Best title on this list. The paper is about how "I was just joking" became a strategic defense. Schrödinger's Joke is a perfect name for it.
ASIS International — “How Memes and Internet Irony Are Hijacked for Radicalization”. May 2021.
Security professionals writing about memes. What a time to be alive.
And Finally
Credit also goes to my 6th grader (quality assurance, whether she knows it or not), my 9th grader (who has informed me this site is “actually kind of funny but please don't tell anyone at school”), and every parent who has ever Googled “what does [word] mean” at 11pm after reading their kid's texts.
You're not out of touch. The language is just moving faster than any of us signed up for. That's what this site is for.