Common Australian Slang
Australians are known for their unique and colorful slang. Here are some common terms that you might encounter:
Slang with Specific Contexts
Some slang terms have specific contexts or connotations:
Rhyming Slang and Etymology
Australian slang often has interesting origins, sometimes stemming from rhyming slang or historical references:
Miscellaneous Slang
Here are a few more terms that might come up in conversation:
Understanding these slang terms can enhance your experience when interacting with Australians, whether you're visiting or just curious about the culture.
Wag1 people
I'm a pom living in Melbourne. I'm writing a short tune comparing Aus and UK slang, like Central Cee's US slang freestyle but for Australia.
I'm looking for any lingo at all, can be words or phrases. Would be helpful to say if your word is widespread or if it's only used by certain groups. Here's my list so far:
safe
Also in Sydney the n words very common among the youth atleast that's what I've been told
gold
Servo - gas/service station, Tinny/tinnie - can of beer
Both widespread, though tinny is used more by the bogan type
During our road trip through Australia, we slowly started picking up on some Aussie slang. But there were still moments we had no clue what was going on. “Thongs”, “arvo”, "dunny", “stinger”… some terms totally caught us off guard!
What are the must-know Australian words or expressions every traveler/tourist should learn before visiting?
I’d love to add the most important words to my university project blog! I already added some here:
https://blog.hslu.ch/majorobm/2025/03/27/downunderdiary-post-3/
Thank you very much for your help!
too many.....
But the basics would be
Servo bottelo ambos tinny snag she'll be right
Had to explain smoko to someone today
"Swim between the flags"
"It's further than you think"
"Don't leave (the locality of) your car if you breakdown in the outback"
Take water not beer when driving through the outbreak.
As someone else has said before, i reckon this is a bit of a myth. Yeah yeah its on mr inbetween. I dont think people genuinely get upset. Call someone a dog though and see fireworks
Google it, It’s prison slang. You’re keeping good company it seems.
Years before Mr Inbetween, my mate called someone champ at a party & we all got in a fight.
Champ was his catch phrase.
Until that night, he had never run into anyone who had spent time as a guest of the state.
We learned that it wasn't the best word to use, and he learned that it's not just people in jail who can punch on.
Nah was told when working up in Rocky, with some ex cons that it was a no no word.
Definitely depends on context for sure, however plenty of people out there lacking in brain cells who take it as a jab, so it will mostly be interpreted as a negative. That said though, a good mate of mine used to be a boxer and he would call us that as a term of endearment, so yeh, context matters, but most rednecks will take it as a slur.
It's all in how it's said, and who it's said to
“Yeah mate I wouldn’t be doing that. “
If a local says that to you, listen and you’ll be alright.
If an aussie ends a word in "o" that's probably a contraction so just stop and think for a second and it will probably come to you.
I always like finding out a word i've known and used all my life comes from rhyming. Squiz for a look: Look - Crook - Squizzy Taylor the crook - Squiz, Pom for English: Immigrant (ten pound immigrant)-Jimmy Grant - Pomegranate - Pom.
I often get Poms claim Seppo is their one as they are unaware that rhyming slang is also a thing here. A shitload of convicts and soldiers were Cockney.
An etymology i wonder about is Flogger. The line "and shoot the Floggers down" from Jim Jones in Botany Bay has me wondering if it comes from the flogger of convicts.
Durrie - Slang term for cigarette. Comes from the Bull Durham brand of tobacco
I have a good book about this: The Story of Australian English by Kel Richards.
oh true that sounds great
I'm keen on this one too
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/thieves-cant-in-convict-era-australia
I looked in that book to see if any of those words had a good story. ‘You’re as crook as Rookwook’ (a Sydney cemetery) was about the only one of note.
Great article! Thanks
Lily On The Dustbin by Nancy Keesing is a great read too.
The advertising slogan for Clayton‘s non-alcoholic liquor was “the drink you have when you’re not having a drink“, which turned into an expression using Clayton‘s to mean a substitute or perhaps a cheat. “The (thing) you have when you’re not having a (thing).”
I always liked the expression “you’ve got Buckleys“, meaning you’ve got no chance, as in “you’ve got Buckleys of getting anything out of me before I’ve had coffee in the morning“. Comes from an old Sydney department store named Buckleys and Nunn, which gave rise to the expression “you’ve got two chances, Buckley‘s and none “ which then shortened to the version I quoted.
Wait, what? This has no relationship to convict William Buckley's amazing odds of living and being a liaison between aboriginal communities and the British? Thought I heard that somewhere
That’s what I learnt too! Never heard of the Sydney dept store version.
be careful of folk etymologies, they'd be rife with this kind of thing
I've always liked Struth which is a shortening of 'God's Truth'. Not that anyone really uses it these days.
I think the Aussies have slang terms for everything. I'm hungry for some dim sum. Those are dimmies! I need to use the bathroom. That's a dunny!
Lots of words for dunny. Thunderbox. Long drop. Room with a view.
Shitbox, shithouse, piss trough
Jack or dog Holden Boot Cuppa
So many small things
Jack - police
Dog - criminal informant
Holden - make of car. Aust arm of General Motors
Boot - trunk
Cuppa - cup of tea (also can mean coffee)
Dimmie - dim sim, fried / steamed meat and cabbage type of dumpling.
Too many dimmies will have you on the dunny in the servo all arvo…
Dimmy’s are dim sims which are different to dim sum
Dim sum is like our yum cha
You'll get used to the slang.......champ.
I'm on smoko leave me alone
All I want, all I need, all I crave is a good pub feed.
Thanks champ
[deleted]
Did he mean Togs, as in bathers/swimwear? Totes would mean a bag.
If they signed off how is there a spelling mistake? Togs ? In some states means swimwear
Signed-off orally, not in writing
Xmas bonus?
Maybe it said Togs
Totes might mean bring a bag with your swim stuff. If it's togs then it's your swimwear
I'd take it to mean bag with Swimsuit, Towel, hat etc.
I'm from The Netherlands and travelled Australia in 2004 for a year. Reading back some old emails and a friend from Australia says at the end of an email: Take it easy goog.
so what does goog mean?
Goog is short for googy egg. Term of endearment, maybe not as common these days, but my sister calls me that sometimes.
Thank you. We were friends. Both construction workers. Regional Queensland Mount Isa. 20 years ago. He also called me Foreskin Ned. Lets not get into that hahaha
I'm from out that way. My grandmother taught me 'I'm as full as a goog' when we can't eat anymore. Obviously done while sticking your guts out and giving them a rub in reponse to someone offering you more food 😆 or as a loud declaration when your done eating...
But yeah, it's a term of endearment towards you 👍🏻
could be rhyming slang as well - if your name is ned or rhymes with ned foreskin ned / googy egg its not too much of a leap.
"Well, fuck me dead," said Foreskin Ned, the bastard from the bush.
This is correct, goog means egg, and calling someone an egg or a good egg is a term of endearment.
I remember when I was little my grandmother used to use that term in the literal sense for an actual boiled eggs for breakfast " How about a googy egg?" I always assumed googy meant gooey
You're an egg - a good egg your friend regarded as family. He will have been missing you.
Thank you. The Australian people were very nice to me.
goog =egg. someone we like we would refer to as a good egg
Goog I thought it was good egg not just egg either way it's a nice thing :)
Definitely means you're a good egg. Abbreviation for a googy egg, term of endearment.
I’m looking for some good Australian slang terms or phrases that will shock an Australian friend of mine that I know.
Just say "Thanks, champ" any time he does anything for you
Say it to your wife. Goes down a treat. Also husband. Works with 'mate'
Agree. Someone wrote on the internet that it was an 'Army expression' - I was in the Army from 1991 - 2012 and never heard it said.
I've lived in every state in Australia except SA and I've never heard it said.
I think it's recently manufactured or sprang from a small pocket of Australia recently.
If you're thirsty, usually applied to wanting a beer:
Dry as a dead dingo's donger
Dry as a nun's nasty
The real Aussie would just say drier than a nuns cunt.
If the goal is shock that'll work.
Couldn't organise a root in a brothel. Couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.
Couldn't run a 2 hole kindergarten shithouse.
The most useless prick that God ever shovelled guts into.
Couldn't run out of sight on a dark night
Couldn't punch a hole through the skin on his custard/ soup
Wouldn't know a tram was up him unless the conductor rang the bell.
Useful as a chocolate teapot
Wouldn't know his arse from his elbow/ shit from clay.
Full as a state school
Smoking like a bushfire
God there are hundreds more. My father in law was absolutely full of them.
My mum always says ' couldn't run a chook raffle'
Couldn’t run a choko vine up a dunny
I used it at work once (in Ireland). And got an assortment of looks from shock, to nothing, to complete meeting halting laughing.
I've never heard this expression either, but Margo Robbie has said it/explained it in a couple of interviews. Must be a phrase from where she's from.
I have a mate who’s been saying this for at least 20 years.
Yeah nah.
Yep. If a word can be shortened and it still makes sense, the word didn't need to be that long to begin with.
McDonalds become Macca's just way easier
Aussies are a generally practical people. So that checks
or simply, 'coz'.
There’s number plate here in Darwin that says ‘Ken Oath’ 😂
Why use many word when few word do job?
See (sea?) world.
Less you open your mouth, the less flies get in. (Explains the accent also)
Oh shit, my wine glass is full of fruit flies.
Why use lot word when few word do trick?
I was genuinely trying to think of a smart ass reply to shorten ‘dunno’, and it took me way too long to realise that’s already one.
but why do most say "Quarter past 3" instead of just saying 3:15?
That could be a Klingon name. xD
I’ve heard “we’re not here to fuck spiders”, what else have you got?
The only time I've ever seen or heard "we're not here to fuck spiders" is on Reddit when people ask about Aussie slang.
Can confirm that I use this regularly at work, along with "Do the Russian Dance," meaning the fuckoffski
"Six pack short of a slab" which means someone who is not all there mentally
Whadaryatalkinabeet
Maichyagoddabibluddijogan!
An 80+ yo next door neighbor and I were having a chat over the fence, he was telling me how shitty his day had been, I said you must have had a run of bad luck.
"Luck? If it was raining pussies I'd get an asshole!" was his response.
TBH he didn't use "pussies"
Probably didn't use "asshole" either.
I'm so hungry that I'd eat the arsehole out of a low flying duck.
Australian slang terms list
Here’s a list of popular Australian slang terms and their meanings:
Takeaway: Australian slang can be quite colorful and varies by region. Familiarizing yourself with these terms can enhance your understanding of Australian culture and make conversations more enjoyable. If you're planning to visit or interact with Australians, using a few of these terms can also help you connect better!
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