No matter which generation you’re a part of, there’s probably a slang term — or a list of them — that comes naturally. But most others will likely fall flat.
That’s where Google comes in.
When people get puzzled by new words and phrases, they turn to their search engines for help. Some slang terms are more commonly-searched than others, and that’s why a new report ranks the 55 most common-searched slang terms in the U.S., broken down state by state (don’t worry… the report also defines them for you). Here’s how they did it:
“We analyzed more than 200 slang popular slang terms in Google’s AdWords platform, to establish the 55 terms that are most frequently searched by Americans, in the context of “What does mean?” The data represents rolling 12-month averages, ending in December 2021. For state-level data we look at the most unusually popular search term in each state.”
So, which slang term has most people in Illinois stumped? The analysis found that “bet” is the word that people search the most. If you’re still searching, that’s “a term of agreement and approval.” Other commonly-searched words in the U.S. include simp, sus, bussin, FOMO and others. See the full list here.