Underspeak

Plain English for any group's way of talking

Find out what they actually meant

Slang from your kid's group chat, or jargon from this morning's meeting.

Paste it in and Underspeak tells you:

  • What it means
  • How it's being used,
  • Whether it's worth a closer look
Or try:

Free to use, and you don't need an account.

Most of the time you can follow along...

Every group has words of its own. Teenagers do, and so do doctors, lawyers and the people in the meeting you've just left. Usually you can work it out from context. Then a word comes up that you can't, and everyone else seems to know it.

Asking can feel awkward. You don't want to look out of touch in front of your kids, or slow in front of your team.

In a 2023 LinkedIn survey of UK workers, 83% of Gen Z and millennial staff said they'd used a word at work without knowing what it meant.

Searching doesn't help much either. Slang lists go out of date quickly, and they give you a definition with no context. The same phrase can be a joke in one message and something to worry about in another.

How it works

Underspeak reads the actual message you paste in, so the answer is about what was said to you

  1. 01

    Paste it or say it.

    Type the word, the phrase or the whole message, or press the mic and speak.

  2. 02

    Pick a mode, or leave it on “Not sure”.

    Youth slang, workplace, tech, medical, legal or regional. If you don't know which, Underspeak works it out.

  3. 03

    Read the answer.

    You get what it means, the tone it's being used in, and a flag if it's worth paying closer attention to.

Try an example

“she ate on her maths test”

Plenty of parents read this as a fail.

See what it really means

Works for any group's way of talking

Coming next

Two things we're thinking about adding

If you'd use either, tap the button for it. That's how we'll decide what to build first.

History

Saved lookups you can return to

Help replying

Answer in a way that fits the conversation.

Questions

Next time you hear a word you don't know, paste it in here.

Decode a phrase

Free to use, and you don't need an account.