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It's not a bad thing, believe it or not.
By Rebecca Jane Stokes — Last updated on Mar 20, 2023
If there are two things I love on this planet, it's slang and the internet. When these two things come together, it's better than accidentally dipping your chocolate chip cookie in peanut butter.
If you have spent any time at all online, particularly in the social media world of Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram, you've probably noticed a few new words being dropped. By "new," I very much mean new to you and me, including the word "trill." But what exactly does trill mean?
See, once you're out of your 20s, slang is like a revealing top at Forever 21: Sure, you can fit into it, and yeah the color does show off your eyes, but you're also a grown woman with no real reason to have such an item in your closet.
While I cannot advise the purchasing of such items of clothing, I can advise you to research your internet slang so that you don't feel like a total dingus when your 15-year-old niece is like, "Auntie B, you're so trill," and you get mad thinking she's dissing you when actually she's just singing your praises.
Learn from my ridiculous mistake: when hip millennials and even hipper teens (god help us all) use the word "trill" on the internet, they aren't being jerks.
What does trill mean?
Quite simply, "trill" is a combination of the words "true" and "real."
When someone says "you're trill," they're saying you're exceptionally real — real as in authentic and fierce, not real as in you happen to exist, just so we're all clear on that.
According to Urban Dictionary, trill is "An adjective used in hip-hop culture to describe someone who is considered to be well respected, coming from a combination of the words 'true' and 'real.'
When you say someone's trill, it's like saying they are "hard" or "gangster," only it doesn't make you sound eight million years old. Wanna rep the streets? Then you live trill as hell.
On the opposite side, though, according to rapper Bun B, "Being trill really just means being true to who you are. 'Trill' does not mean keeping it hood, does not mean keeping it gangster, or anything like that.”
Where did trill come from?
Like a lot of slang words being used by the youths today, "trill" has actually been a huge part of African American vernacular language since the late 1980s.
It was a huge part of the hip-hop scene, with rappers using it to identify how hard their various crews and neighborhoods are. Rapper A$AP Rocky even released a mixtape in 2013 called "Trill."
However, the term is more closely associated with Houston rapper Bun B, who has recorded albums titled "Trill," "II Trill," and "Trill OG." So, there's your history lesson.
How To Use Trill In Texts & Conversation
1. To describe an authentic person
"Rachel is just so trill. She never lets herself be influenced by trends or other people."
2. To describe a soap box speech
"Keep speaking that trill!"
3. To show respect
"Jason is so trill to help his grandma out."
The Best Trill Slang Memes
Now that you know what trill means, there are plenty of hilarious and dank memes to make you laugh. You know, in case you want to use the word the next time you feel so inclined online.
1. Looks innocent, but ain't so innocent
2. Even your favorite cartoons are trill
3. Trill is not a drug, but if you do drugs, you might be called trill
4. Don't let the memes fool you... neither Patrick nor Spongebob are trill
5. You heard it here first
6. You know it's reached meme-worthy status when Tyson pops up
7. Cheesy? Yes. Hilarious? Also yes
8. Words to live by
9. The mash-up we didn't know we needed
10. To each their own, we suppose...
11. Mama looks very pleased about this
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Rebecca Jane Stokes is a freelance writer and the former Senior Editor of Pop Culture at Newsweek with a passion for lifestyle, geek news, and true crime.