Historical Dictionary of American Slang

The alphaDictionary Historical Dictionary of American Slang presents a unique way for studying slang. It contains over 2200 slang words with the centuries in which they were first printed. The dates were taken from the Oxford English Dictionary, the Online Etymological Dictionary, or the earliest occurrences our editors can remember in the case of recent terms. (If you are not sure what slang is, click here.)

The dictionary can be searched for slang words, their meanings, and dates.

• To find a specific slang word, type it in the "Word" box.
• To access all the slang terms meaning "to leave", type Leave in the "Search" box.
• To access all slang originating in the 1920s, just type in 1920 in the "Beginning Year" field.
• To limit any search to specific years, add the beginning and ending years in the appropriate boxes.
• To eliminate off-color words referring to sex and drugs, click the "Clean" button. If you wish off-color terms included, click "Full".

For an example of how the search engine works, click here.

We have eliminated most four-letter and drug related words but we have kept a few euphemisms. If we missed your favorite slang words, or if you have any other suggestions, please let us know through our contact page.

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• Discuss accents, slang and dialects with others. Now you can talk with others who have an interest in words, how they are pronounced, used, and created in our Alpha Agora.
• While you are here, check out our daily "So What's the Good Word?" feature. We select an interesting word and tell you all about it—how to say it, what it means, where it comes from, and how to use it. You can have it delivered to your email inbox daily, gratis (for free)!