This page catalogues some expressions used on 4chan which I find interesting. Many are original phrases invented on 4chan, some popularized there, and some are also used more widely on the internet. Many of these come from the /a/ Anime and Manga board which I’ve read the most. There’s a bit of pondering at the bottom of the page, but lets start with the list.

As with real 4chan threads, the quality of content degrades towards the end.

See also Imageboard cultureImageboard culture.

The list

based

Adjective that means the subject is very praiseworthy. In my mind at least, there is the added implication of the superior taste of the person making the judgement, expecting some to disagree with them.

“dank” has roughly the same meaning but is used in more restricted ways I think. Example: “dank meme”.

I kneel

I kneel.

A common way to show respect is this phrase, often accompanied by the Dragon Ball Z image here or some of variant of it. The pose is sometimes more precisely referred to as genuflecting.

kino

Directly means FilmsFilms that has very high artistic value. Often used to mean a great story in any medium.

A kind of antonym is “capeshit”, for superhero movies. A good caper film might be called “capekino”.

this

Followed after a link to a previous post, it means “I agree with this”. Sometimes there is no other text besides the word, where it is to be understood the user wanted to highlight that post because imageboards do not have upvotes.

underrated

Similar to “this”, is used to call attention to some other post without having anything particular to say.

filename

Similar to the above, a reply may call out attention to (funny) image filename of another post, which is directly shown in the post but is often overlooked.

NTA

“Not that anon”. Used when replying to a post that is replying to another post, to indicate that the poster is not the “grandparent” poster.

ITT

“In this thread”

t. [person]

Probably originating from the Finnish imageboards, it’s a Finnish way of signing letters that means “Regards, [person]”. It is used in a quote to make a patently false implication that the quoted post was written by the named person or party. So the real meaning of “>t. [person]” is roughly “you are blindly siding with [person]” when serious, or “[person] could have written this” when not so serious.

blue board / red board

The NSFW posting rules depend on the board and fall into two major categories which is indicated by default theme colors of red and blue. On red boards (“Yotsuba” or “Futaba” theme) such as /pol/ (“Politically incorrect”) and /e/ (“Ecchi”) the rules are more lax (but do exist). Blue boards (“Yotsuba B” or “Burichan” theme) are the majority and require the images posted on there to be “work safe”, though what that means might not match your definition.

The /b/ “Random” board allows some content even other red boards don’t, and visiting it can be a rather disturbing experience.

imagine

On /a/ this word often refers to the post number 154427603 with image of the Konosuba character Megumin, writing:

>145cm
>roughly 40kg.

Imagine how fun it would be to manhandle her tiny body. I’d just walk around the house looking for things to bend her over and fuck her on.

The image attached here is the most common mashup of that post.

Basically, by saying “imagine” in certain contexts, the 4chan poster is telling you to indulge in a fantasy of the sort presented in that original post.

me on the right

Posted as response to image with multiple characters in some (potentially) sexually loaded situation, implying the author likes the image and wants you to imagine taking the mental position of the person on the right of the image. Obviously varies the word “right” to fit the image in question.

for me it’s

Phrase to indicate preference, for example “for me it’s tomboys”.

soul

When some contemporary art looks good on the surface but bland, it’s called “soulless”. Then by opposite, works that may look a bit dated but are very original or honest are said to have “soul”

sovl

Hopefully you know from history that the U was originally written with V until U was created. In a way to signify “authenticity”, posters sometimes substitute “v” for “u” for certain words such as the aforelisted “soul”.

Here are some other words and names I’ve seen use this pattern: trvthnvke (or trvke), cvnt, sewerslvt

shilling

Verb that means promoting something for secret monetary gain. So for example if a thread is discussing how some game is complete dogshit and one poster keeps saying the opposite, that poster might get accused of shilling. The implication being perhaps that he works for the company that made the game, or somehow makes money promoting the game (eg as a streamer).

In reality, it seems very unlikely that money is ever involved, and the term can be taken to imply the target is promoting something for any dubious reasons.

bait

What the rest of the western internet calls trolling, 4chan calls baiting. It’s as direct translation from their Japanese imageboard ancestors where the phenomenon is called “tsuri”, literally baiting fish. The post accusing baiting is often accompanied by a black and white image of a fish and a hook, which there exist many variants of.

take your meds

Downs the target by implying they are mentally ill and posting in a “bad condition”.

spotted the [group member]

Almost always a playful suggestion that the target person has some tick or mannerism that they are not aware of, which makes them stand out as part of the indicated group. Eg “spotted the britbong”.

mfw

“My face when” (usually greentexted, see example in image above). Normally would be accompanied by image of some kind of extreme face.

tfw

“That feel when” (usually greentexted). The phrase has escaped 4chan long ago but the abbreviation maybe not so.

[media] for this feel?

Phrase used when the poster has recognized some pattern that created a very unique feeling in themselves. Not always used very seriously, but to me it always evokes the sense that the person is able to use fictional media as a way to reach deeper understanding about themselves and the world.

unironically

What it says on the tin, but this term is interesting because it’s so common. As I understand it, “ironic shitposting” on the boards used to be such a large problem back in the day that it was explicitly disallowed and often lead to bans. Debating that, people got used to the word “ironic” and this antonym.

headcanon

Mildly pejorative, means something imagined so strongly by a fan that they think it must be true.

god tier

Tier lists of the “S A B C …” are very common these days, but on imageboards the tiers are often named, with “god” being a common one for the top level.

“peak” is another term for the most top tier. A phrase like “That series is mid.” would be short for “mid-tier”.

normalfag

Pejorative term for ordinary people, implying the imageboard users are better. I’m listing this here for two reasons: Firstly the term did not initially become used on Reddit because users there would think it gross to use the word “fag” that way, and perhaps because at that time considered themselves relative “normal”. But then the replacement word “normies” appeared on Reddit, and for the longest time it was a total taboo to use that on 4chan. You would immediately be called out to “go back to plebbit”. However these days it the word “normies” is also quite common on 4chan.

Secondly, there are many other words built in this fashion (sometimes ad hoc): newfag, oldfag, buyfag, poorfag, dubfag, moralfag, eurofag, drawfag, even gayfag… and not all of them are pejorative and are often used by posters to refer to themselves. The word “fag” is of course short for “faggot” and you can also write “newfaggot” and so on explicitly.

Rarely, the “fag” suffix is affectionally replaced with “friend”, eg to get “newfriend”.

Typical buyfag

pleb, peasant

Pleb and peasant are alternative words for normalfag, which imply an ironic “aristocratic” status for the board users.

Other such “high class” slurs include: pseud, tool, proletarian, philistine

man of culture

Hyouge Mono

Kind of opposite to the above, this is a reference to the series Hyouge Mono and the positive ideas it evokes about a Japanese (or perhaps Chinese) persons from hundreds of years ago with skills in fields such as statecraft, combat, and especially various branches of high culture. By quoting another post with this phrase, the poster is suggesting the quoted thing is representative of englightened thinking, and obviously also revealing themselves as part of the same line of thinking.

eop

“English-only pleb/peasant”. In context of discussing Japanese language media, a person who doesn’t understand Japanese.

ESL means “English as Second Language”.

tourist

Calling out a poster on 4chan for not being part of the culture. A related thing is to complain about “summer”, implying there are more than usual idiots/tourists around because of school holidays.

go back

Short for “go back to reddit”, “gaia”, etc., implying the quoted poster is showing traits of being an outsider.

A 4chan banner image

casual

Insult for people not serious enough about something. For example on /a/ if someone revealed they had seen 200 different complete anime series, they might get called “casual”. Even though that number would be way above the average anime consumer, and also above many /a/ posters, it is certainly true there exist much more experienced anime viewers on the board, possibly some of them reading the thread at the very moment but not bothering to reply. Those experts would defeat the bragging poster not only in hard numbers of consumed content, or “taste” by having focused their viewing effort on the very best works, but also by the fact that they don’t need to make a number out of their expertise. The one calling you casual might not be one of such experts (yet), but merely properly aware of the OPs ignorance as well as their own.

The existence of extreme obsession, expertise, and talent is in some sense a normal outcome of any proper forum of discussion where skill and knowledge are appreciated above other things. On 4chan it’s always a mistake to think you are the smartest or most experienced one in the room, and by letting out anything that even remotely sounds like a brag, you will have people let you know you don’t know shit, and be right about it.

to deliver

To fulfill a request by another anon, usually to post some requested image, file, or link.

brother

At least on some boards the users like to think of themselves as kindred souls and often affectionately call other posters “brother”, “my nigga”, “fags”, “gentlemen”, or something like that. On the female imageboard Crystal Cafe the users call each other “sisters”.

A great phrase I once saw: “my brother of another mother”

trap

Boy posing as a girl.

no homo

Image of Mugen used as opening post for “homo threads” on /a/

While the words “gay”, “fag”, “faggots” are sometimes used non-ironically, a common way to refer to actual homosexuals is to, well, call them “homosexuals” or “homos” for short. The intent of the overt formality is probably to add humor.

“no homo” is a humoristic phrase used for example when the user is “mirin” (admiring) a male body on the /fit/ness board.

/a/ likes traps. Notice the “no homo” in the corner

would

Expressions where the verb is omitted and left to the imagination of the reader. The simplest use is answering to a post with (lewd) image with the single word “would” (meaning something like “have sex with”).

“Asuka a best”

would hug tenderly

Some boards, including /a/, support spoiler tags which are sometimes used like this to make the reader imagine the hidden part and then surprise them when they read it by selecting the blanked text with mouse.

Spoiler images can be used in a similar way (their thumbnail needs to be clicked to see the image). Though the most popular use for spoiling images is to hide very lewd images to not bother other users (if you can believe that).

Both spoiler text and spoiler images are used quite rarely for the original intended purpose of, well, hiding spoilers about media. You can usually expect to get spoiled about everything immediately on 4chan, which is one of the reasons I usually avoid it for new series/games I’m getting into, but later come to the threads to find new ways to appreciate the work.

2/10 would not

Refers to a category of image jokes that are overly critical, a rather common trait for board users.

why is

Lots of opening posts use a pattern like “Why is [my opinion correct]?” to state as a question a “fact” this obviously their own opinion. I guess the origins of this custom are in the old internet wisdom that the best way to get your question answered is to post a wrong answer to it.

filtered

Means someone does not get it, and is thus “filtered” out from the set of people who do.

May also refer to using wordfilters to hide posts, as in “Reported and filtered.”

projecting

Used as accusation, it refers to the psychological concept.

to mog

It has the same meaning as old the school “to own/pwn”, that is, to dominate. Sometimes it refers specifically to having superior looks.

to lurk

To browse the imageboard without ever posting yourself. If you post something something that reveals your ignorance of the board you might get told to “lurk moar”.

picrel

“Picture related”, asking the reader to pay attention to the image. Derived from the common joke of “picture unrelated” when an opening post text and image are unrelated, but the image is so interesting that it completely derails the discussion.

anime only

On /a/, a person who has not read the original material (manga, LN, VN, etc.) on which the anime adaptation in question is based on.

ngmi

Pic not related.

Short for “not gonna make it”, used for example on the art boards to indicate someone’s art is not good and that they are not going to be able to make living as artists.

dyel

Similar to previous, short for “do you even lift”, used on /fit/ in replies to people’s selfies.

wizard

A man who is over 30 and still a virgin. A common joke is that upon obtaining their wizard’s license they immediately use the power to turn themselves into a little girl.

spoonfeeding

When someone asks a dumb question they could easily have figured out be a simple Google search, and someone answers them honestly, that answer may get called out as spoonfeeding. In some ways it can be a worse offense than having made the stupid question, because the imageboards usually favor independent thinking over pointless friendliness.

pick one

Implies a contradiction in the target post by listing words, as if they form an oxymoron. Perhaps easier explain with an example:

What gachagacha games are you playing right now?

is replied by

>Gacha
>Game
pick one

where “pick one” is sometimes completely omitted or replaced with something similar.

yes

When someone posts a very long and confusing question, or perhaps one that lists several alternatives all of which are desirable, it’s quite common to reply with the single word “yes”. The intention is probably to poke fun and make the poster reflect, as always.

The following reply will often be “no” and the one after that “both”.

fixed that for you (ftfy)

Accompanied by a misquote of another post that this poster has “fixed”, usually to have the opposite meaning.

to win

On /a/, when one the numerous female characters of a series supposedly becomes the sole interest of the male MC. Obviously “to lose” is the opposite. Sometimes the “competition” in question is called a “bowl”.

your vs. you’re

Intentional typos are central 4chan writing. If you accidentally call someone out for wrong English on these ones, you are immediately identifying yourself as the newfag and will get ridiculed (but some of these words are so old that posters now think wrongly calling them out is more likely to be baiting than a mistake).

Whenever making a concise but important point and having to use either one of these words, use the wrong one.

Classic exaggerated examples: nothing personnel, gorilla warfare, cereal killer

what is this sorcery?

Some phrases like this one are clear enough on the first reading, but the fact they are often repeated in the exact same way makes them sayings like the others on this page.

what did they mean by this?

Another stock phrase, used in ironic manner indicating the target of the comment expressed something silly and confusing, which in fact has no deeper meaning behind it.

for what purpose?

Similar to the previous, instead of being a literal question, it’s just calling attention to the target post or image.

what the fuck happened?

When comparing past to the present, usually indicating the past was better.

dubs, trips, quads, etc.

As background, every anonymous post on 4chan and other imageboards is indentified simply by a running number, per board. The first ever post on a board is given the number 1, the second 2, and so on. For example, as of writing this, looking at any post on the rather busy /a/ board tells me the board has had over 280 million posts since its creation. The random board /b/ is nearing 1 billion.

“Dubs, trips, quads” etc. is when a post number ends in two, three, four, etc. same digits. It is sometimes considered to increase the value of a post to randomly get repeating digits. One would think that with thousands of posts of being made at a time, it’s entirely down to luck, but there are actually (closely guarded) hacks to affect your post number.

Posts “attempting” such repeating digits commonly include images of Christian Bale from American Psycho are attached with text like “check em”.

The dubs guy. Check 'em.

GET

Basically the highest form of dubs, “GET” is the act of purposefully and successfully making a post with lots of repeating digits. The term comes the original Japanese image boards where it was probably used in the sense of “success”. From the recorded examples, it’s plainly obvious that some people have great ability to orchestrate the GETs, as statistically speaking they are nearly impossible.

From what I see, GETs are not a very big deal these days, but earlier Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! was a popular image to attach when making one. Below is a Yotsuba example (Notice both post numbers after “No.”).

This double GET on /a/ was particularly creative because Yotsuba is also the “404 girl”, images of her being shown when ever you encounter the 404 HTML error on 4chan.

I don’t remember this

When posting or replying to something (obviously) fan or AI made content, as if the poster thinks it’s part of the original work.

you had one job

Used when someone fails to make an obvious joke.

greentext

Typing the character “>” before text causes it to become green and is intended for quoting other other posters. However, often posters in a way “quote themselves” by telling stories of something that (supposedly) happened to them, and that is called greentexting.

When people use greentext in some other way, they sometimes get annoyed replies asking “who are you quoting?” or accused of using “meme arrows”.

(You)

A reply to post. If you make a post in thread, lets say post number 1234 and someone quotes it with “>>1234”, then on your own web browser it instead shows as “>>1234 (You)”. So if someone tells “here’s a (You)”, it usually means they think you did not really deserve that reply, for example because they think you were baiting or lazy.

samefag

Replying to your own post or supporting it while pretending to be another anonymous poster. Mostly used as an accusation since there is no way to prove if two anonymous posts came from the same user.

we did it!

Ironic remark to how on Reddit people take extensive pride for any perceived accomplishment.

chuuni

Rikka, the best chuuni: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!

Short for chuunibyou, a Japanese term for young people who are a bit too much into fantasy and tend to do edgy and cringy things, or like media perceived as such.

weeaboo or weeb

Anime nerd.

mod

Moderator on 4chan.

janitor or janny

A low-ranking moderator on 4chan.

tripcode, tripfag

Tripcode is a user identification mechanism on 4chan that you are not supposed to use. If you do use it then you are a tripfag.

See 4chan tripcode4chan tripcode for detailed explanation and for the rare instances where a tripcode is appropriate to use.

avataring

Posting images of the same character in multiple posts as a way to identify yourself. Usually looked down upon, similarly as using a tripcode as they defeat the spirit of anonymous posting.

moonrunes or moon

Japanese text.

reddit spacing

Archaic. Using two newlines to separate paragraphs instead of one which used to be a more common way of writing on 4chan.

F

Some video game had at a funeral scene a command to “Press F to pay respects” which players found cheap and silly and so made it into a meme.

kys

“Kill yourself”. A less polite way to tell you disagree with someone.

Instead of using the abbreviation, many users prefer to explicitly write it in words as “Kill yourself”, which perhaps increases the power and does not make the poster look as lazy. Other common abbreviations are also often written out explicitly for such reasons.

Carlos

Carlos

This image of Carlos Ramón is often accompanied to post making some kind of lame word pun.

qrd

“Quick run down”. Asking someone or giving a summary of some events.

super interesting

On /a/ it’s a reference to a Gintama scene where Hijikata is reading the Jump magazine and aptly describing the manga To Love Ru as such.

Image: Gintama (Sunrise)

to get isekaid by truck-kun

Used on /a/ in various forms, meaning “to die”. It’s a reference to recurring gag in Isekai genre manga where in the first chapter the protagonist gets run over a truck, dies, and then awakens in a fantasy world.

go to gensoukyou

On /a/ and /jp/, “to commit suicide” in order to advance to Gensoukyou, a heaven replacement for any Touhou fan.

hotgluing

On /a/ buyfag threads, a supposed practice of ejaculating on bishoujo figures.

my body is ready. going to need both hands

Phrases for anticipation of fapping, that is, masturbation.

sadpanda

“Sad panda” is the image shown when trying to access some ExHentai links without proper authorization. Such links, sometimes shared on /a/, are often followed by posts implying that site is not real — that all the links to it are baits “too good to be true”.

to sperg

Short for “asperger”, to act like one with the syndrome.

kek

Synonym for “lol”, originating from the grand old MMORPG World of Warcraft which employed text obfuscation between communication of the two major factions. It is said that Blizzard, the developer studio, designated this particular replacement because in Korean a “hahaha” sound is written like “kekeke”, and back then Koreans were a huge part of Blizzard’s player base in Starcraft.

NTR

“Netorare”, a type of Japanese porn storytelling where the male MC is left watching as another man takes “his” girl.

cuck

Generally, a weak person. Often specifically weak in a sexual sense, not being in control of their partner, or even having a fetish about infidelity of their partner (see “NTR” above). Comes from the word “cuckold”.

loli, hebe

Terms for young girls. As a quick note, on the /a/ board these terms are almost exclusively used for anime characters. To like “loli” usually means to like the over-sexualized anime characterizations of that age, and so definitely does not directly indicate preference to real girls of that age bracket.

In my estimation, on /a/ the terms refer roughly to these age brackets:

• loli (from the Japanese term for “lolita”): ages 6-12
• hebe (from hebephilia): ages 12+

Also,

• lolicon (from Japanese “lolita complex” abbreviation): Someone who likes lolis.
• toddler: the term for below the loli age, but I think it’s almost always used in a baiting fashion.
• shota: a male loli. “shotacon” is analogous to lolicon.

futa

Short for “futanari”, a Japanese genre of porn and description of person with sexual organs of both the sexes.

cunny

“loli cunt”

soon

It’s an old meme that makes some posts with the text “soon” seem ominous.

too big

There is an eternal discussion about boob sizes that revolves around this phrase…

jelly

jealous

animu, mango

Obviously, animeanime, mangamanga. Hobbyists always create playful words to refer to their interests.

pantsu

Female underwear.

• nopan: “No panties”
• shimapan: “Stripped panties”

cope

Blown out version of the psychological concept of “coping” to suggests that the target is acting out his weaknesses.

desu

… desu.

Desu a Japanese verb (or “copula”) that just means “is” and therefore is exceedingly common in the language.

On 4chan it’s common because it’s the verbal tic used by the character Suiseiseki of Rozen Maiden, who is basically the second mascot of 4chan, after Yotsuba.

fpbp

“First post, best post”. Also “spbp” for second.

tl;dr

“Too long, didn’t read”

3dpd

“3d pig disgusting”. Person that is not anime.

ishiggydiggy

Part of the “I seriously hope you don’t” line of abbreviations.

sauce

Asking for “source” of some image or text. Answering is called “delivering”.

inb4 [thing]

“In before”, pointing out some kind of reply is guaranteed to follow.

/thread

“End of discussion”. Usually posted as response to a sharp response early in a thread.

fake and gay

When it’s not enough to call a post “fake”, I guess.

moot

Nickname of the original creator and admin of 4chan, Christopher Poole.

gook

As I understand it, this wartime American slur primarily refers to Koreans and possibly the Vietnamese, but on 4chan it’s often used “humorously” for Japanese people. For example when the Japanese man Hiroyuki Nishimura acquired 4chan in 2015 and polled the users what they should call him, one of the top answers was “gookmoot”.

In general, racial slurs work very differently on 4chan because no one there takes them seriously. The users are more concerned with extreme freedom of speech and by using slurs freely they drive away new users that easily get offended, thus preserving the “culture”.

Another reason why I think it’s wrong to see 4chan as “racist” is that if you post on 4chan anything, just slightly wrong, you will get “attacked” from a multitude of angles, racism being one of the rarest, not just because generally you can’t tell that from an anonymous post, but I think also because so few users are actually racist in any way.

From left: Hiroyuki, moot, ZUN, and some fourth person I don't know

burger

“American”

zoomer, coomer

There are a several variations of the common word “boomer” that describes a generation of people born after the World War 2. “Zoomer” stands for the more common “Generation Z” that is a label for people born around the year 2000.

“Coomer” means a person addicted to porn and probably not very successful at life. But at least in my mind this rhyming association with the age generations adds the nuance that it has been for the person a somewhat unescapable fate, having born in modern “difficult times”. Perhaps similar to the “lay flat” attitude among Chinese “netizens”.

fren

“Friend”

waifu

See Valentine's Day for some proper level of commitment.

vidya

Video games.

Japanese abbreviations

These are actual Japanese internet slang written using latin characters. I’m listing here some that have been adopted by 4chan, but there are tons more of them.

• JK, JC, and JS: Joshikousei, joshichuugakusei, joshishougakusei; that is, female high school, middle school, and elementary school student.
• OL: Office lady
• AV: Adult video
• MAD: Japanese term for anime music videos (AMV)
• BL: Boys love
• H: Hentai/ecchi
• S and M: From S&M, these are more general in Japanese usage without strong connotations to sex.
• NG: No good
• OP and ED: Opening and ending of an anime.
• OVA, OAV, ONA: Special kind of anime.

Analysis

The imageboard 4chan has distinctive culture that includes unique use of the English language. A great many of their colloquialisms have since become standard internet parlance. Just last week I read The EconomistThe Economist declare “slop” as their word of the week, a word likely coined on 4chan. Although not all of the words and expressions listed on this page have truly been coined directly on 4chan, they have been extensively used there before becoming known to the rest of the internet.

The focus of this article is on the particular pieces of language I find interesting, and for which it may difficult to construct Google searches for.

Further, you can find some terms explained on the official 4chan FAQ, including: sage, noko, shitposting, sticky

Things you don’t understand on the first reading

Like with all forms of language, new internet-speak needs to immediately make sense to at least some people in order to spread. But since 4chan is a large but somewhat enclosed community, customs of speaking there have been able to proliferate without having to stay comprehensible to outsiders. And the 4chan users like it that way too, so that only the most dedicated may join. This is diametrically opposite to many modern internet communities, which place inclusion first, usually at the expense of everything else.

However, even as regular board user you are often left guessing what the new expressions might mean and may have to encounter them a couple of times before making the connection. Directly asking what a word or phrase means often yields replies humoristically trying mislead you.

Wordfilters

When a user’s post contains certain words they get replaced by specific other words without warning the user. Besides humor, the intention by the mods in implementing this feature is to discourage use of the filtered words. The wordfilter lists are sometimes updated quite often so there are many examples of very short-lived replacement words. Some examples from the top of my head:

tbh -> desu
fam -> senpai
fuckers -> fvarkers

On /a/ “isekai” is replaced with isekai, a spoilered version of the same word, for whatever reason. Actually, I recently saw some instances of “isekai” unspoilered, next to other instances that weve spoilered, which made me wonder if there always just was some insane self-imposed culture of spoilering that word.

Not to imply “fuck” is not an important word.