TikTok Slang: What Does “Slay” Mean?

TikTok users often seem to have their own language only somewhat related to English.

Terms and acronyms like GYAT, lowkey, BDE, and “hawk tuah” are just a few examples. Some have different meanings on the social media platform than they do in everyday conversation, some are indecipherable to outsiders, and some are definitely NSFW (not safe for work).

What many have in common is that they were popularized by a TikTok video that went viral. When you come across the word “slay” in TikTok content, though, you may already understand exactly what the content creator is saying — and it doesn’t involve literal murder.

“Slay” is now widely used in real life with the same meaning as it has on the app, and while no one is definitively credited with popularizing the word’s modern definition, it happened long before social media was around.

Let’s learn more.

What “Slay” Means on TikTok

As with many of today’s common slang terms, today’s slang usage of “slay” began in alternative culture.

In the 1970s and 80s, “slay” was used in Latino and Black LGBTQ dance clubs to describe something that was done extremely well, just as the word “kill” was commonly used by comedians or actors to describe a routine or performance that audiences loved. When a dance, a fashion statement, or an attitude “slayed,” it scored huge style points with others.

The word gained wider usage thanks to its inclusion in the 1991 drag culture documentary “Paris is Burning” and on the popular 21st-century reality show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Many believe the release of Beyonce’s song “Formation” in 2016, with the lyric “I slay” referring to feminist and Black activism, brought the term fully into the mainstream the year before TikTok was launched internationally.

“Slay” is used even more often today with the meaning “to do something or perform something exceptionally well or impressively,” as defined in the authoritative Merriam-Webster dictionary. It has become just another ordinary term — proof that “slay” is an accepted idiom in both the English language and on social media.

In short, parents are just as likely to hear their teens and tweens say that something “slayed” as they are to run into the word online; people use “slay” in TikTok videos simply because it’s part of their ordinary vocabulary.