The most common Australian slang for kids is "ankle-biter," used for small children who are short enough to be near your ankles, while other terms include "kids," "little tackers," or sometimes just general terms like "mates" depending on the context, though "ankle-biter" is distinctly Aussie.
Ankle biter: in Australia, small children are often called ankle biters.
"Oy oy oy" in Australia is most famously part of the patriotic chant "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!" used at sporting events to show national pride, but "Oi" also functions as a general Australian informal interjection, like "hey" or "excuse me," to get someone's attention. The chant itself comes from the British "Oggy Oggy Oggy" cheer for Cornish pasties and became popular in Australia after the 2000 Olympics.
Here are 5 common Aussie slang words/phrases: G'day (hello), Mate (friend), Arvo (afternoon), No worries (no problem/you're welcome), and Barbie (barbecue), with many Aussies shortening words (like Brekkie for breakfast, Servo for gas station) and using colourful terms for everyday things.
As a parent, you've probably overheard some slang from your kid. They may say things like, “I'm amped about my drip today,” or “He's got rizz. Giving off major BDE.” Maybe they've said something like, “No cap, this sandwich is bussin',” or “Spill the tea, sis!”
When kid is used as a verb, it means to tease or jokingly deceive someone — to kid them. Some sticklers for formality object to using kid to mean "child," but that meaning has been around since the 1590s. The "teasing" definition of kid comes from the sense of "treat like a child." Definitions of kid.
Kids are using “yeet” to express themselves in two ways, according to Merriam-Webster. Yeet is a verb that means to throw something hard without caring if it breaks and is an expression of excitement. A yeet definition from Urban Dictionary states: “Typically a spoken word that can sometimes take the place of 'psych.
Common Australian slang for a girl includes "Sheila" (older, sometimes dated or slightly derogatory), "chick," or just using general terms like "mate," "gal," or "lass," with context and tone being important, but "girl" is still widely used; some slang, like "moll," can refer to a girlfriend or a promiscuous woman, while "bogan" describes an unsophisticated person.
Another versatile phrase that often perplexes people, “yeah nah”, is used in conversation either when someone agrees with your negative stance on something, or conversely, they follow your train of thought but don't really agree with what you're saying. Example: "I can't wait to try the oysters in Tasmania!"
The $10 note is referred to as a "tenner" or again, less commonly, a "Blue Swimmer", other variations of this nickname exist such as the "blue grenadier", it may also rarely be called a "blue tongue", in reference to the Australian blue-tongue lizard.
Another classic case of Australians shortening everything. Meaning 'thank you', ta is usually used for the times when you are in a rush or want to send a quick text to show your appreciation for something.
"Oi oi oi baka" is a viral TikTok trend where someone (usually a high school student) gets up on a chair, desk, or table and shouts "Oi oi oi baka!" at school or in public. It may be inspired by a character named Bakugou from an anime called My Hero Academia. In Japanese, the phrase means, "Hey, hey, hey, idiot!"
“G'day” What does it mean? General greeting, used instead of “hello”, both day and night. Often combined with “mate”, as in…
"Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy, Oi Oi Oi" (often written as "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi") is a patriotic Australian sports chant, a rallying cry of national pride, originating from older British cheers like "Oggy Oggy Oggy," with "Aussie" being slang for Australian, and "Oi" functioning as an emphatic interjection, similar to "Hey!" or "Go!". It's used at sporting events, sometimes considered a bit cheesy or "cringey" by some Australians, but generally seen as an inclusive way to support national teams.
Is the word kid slang? Some people worry that kid, when used of a child rather than a juvenile goat, is either slang or too colloquial to merit acceptance in standard English. The fact is that we have been using kid to refer to a child that is human, rather than goatish, for more than three hundred years now.
The most common Australian slang for a sandwich is "sanga," often used for a regular sandwich, and "sausage sanga" for a sausage sandwich, while a toasted sandwich is a "toasty," derived from shortening words and adding a vowel sound (like servo for service station or avo for avocado).
Australians typically say "sorry" as "sorry" itself, without any significant variation in slang.
While "nah" isn't inherently rude, it can be perceived as blunt or dismissive depending on the context and your relationship with the person you're communicating with. In formal settings, using "no" is always more appropriate.
In Australian slang, "avo" means avocado, while "arvo" means afternoon; they sound similar but refer to different things, with "arvo" being a shortened form of "afternoon," often pronounced with an "ah" sound, and "avo" being a short form of "avocado".
Australians use a couple of other colloquial words for a hen's egg. The Australian English word googie or goog is an informal term that dates from the 1880s. It derives from British dialect goggy, a child's word for an egg. A closer parallel to the jocular bum nut, however, is the word cackleberry.
Pommy or pom
Newspapers in Australia were using the term by 1912, with it appearing first in Western Australia, and was said to be short for pomegranate, with the terms "jimmy" and "jimmigrant" also in use. The term Ten-pound Pom refers to British (subsidized) migrants to Australia and New Zealand after World War II.
Missus. A person's wife or girlfriend. I'm taking the missus out for their birthday.
Yeet is a slang word that functions broadly with the meaning “to throw,” but is especially used to emphasize forcefulness and a lack of concern for the thing being thrown. Yeet is also used as an interjection, most often to express excitement or enthusiasm.
: one that brings bad luck. also : the state or spell of bad luck brought on by a jinx.
“It sounds a bit cliché, but it's like our own specific way of communicating with each other. And I think it just creates a sense of 'when you start using slang words, you become cool,” says a ninth grader. “It's a way for us to differentiate between our peers and to know which ones [are] closely related to us.