A beginner’s guide to Aussie slang

The official language of Australia is English but not as everyone knows it. If you’re travelling to Australia or have just moved over here for study or work, you’ll soon realise many of our words are uniquely Aussie.

In fact, many of the words and phrases you’ll hear won’t be in English language lesson textbooks or indeed, in many dictionaries.

No worries, mate, here’s a handy guide to some Aussie slang that might make your time in Australia a little less confusing.

First up, what’s slang? It may be a term that you haven’t heard of before.

When learning English, you were probably taught ‘proper English’ or something that aims to resemble the ‘Queen’s English’, or the type of English used at the BBC.

Slang, by contrast, develops outside those environments. It’s rarely used in formal or academic writing, and it can reflect a specific group within a broader society. Sometimes it’s even intentionally obscure so that it can’t be easily understood by those outside a particular subculture.

All languages develop over time, with some words falling out of use and new ones coming in. Aussie slang is no exception. You can think of it as a living, informal language shaped by different and ever-changing cultural influences.

Predating colonisation by many thousand years, Aboriginal culture produced a complex linguistic system of some 250 languages. Today many Aboriginal words are part of the vernacular through place names, animals, plants and other natural features. For example, K'gari (formerly Fraser Island) meaning 'paradise' and Warrumbungles meaning 'crooked mountains'.

Modern Australia is a relatively young nation and while it’s made up of many cultures there is a way of speaking that can be defined as Aussie slang – even if it changes over time.

Many of these colloquial terms come from British or Irish forms of English. Perhaps the most famous being Cockney rhyming slang that used to be quite popular in Australia but is arguably falling out of use. For example, ‘china’ means ‘mate’ (china plate). You may still hear, ‘My old china’ meaning ‘My old friend’. But there’s even older examples like ‘Strewth’, that was used regularly until recently in Australia. It’s actually a carryover term from Shakespearean times when contracted words like Sblood (‘God’s blood’) were popular, so Strewth meant ‘God’s truth’.

Over time Australian English also became influenced by American terms and slang for example, ‘raincheck’ meaning to reschedule an event or a meeting as in ‘Sorry, I can’t make that date – I’ll have to take a raincheck’.

The way Australians pronounce English words is known as Strine, and an important part of the unique character of Australian English is the use of our very own slang words.

Let’s start with the easy stuff. In Australian conversations, you’ll frequently hear people lop off the end of words, often adding an ‘o’ or a ‘y’ or ‘ie’ sound to the end.

Here are some to get you started:  aggro (aggressive), ambo (paramedic or their vehicle), arvo (afternoon), avo (avocado), bottlo (bottle shop/liquor store), brolly (umbrella), brekky (breakfast), cardy (cardigan), Chrissie (Christmas), chockies (chocolates), devo (devastated), footy (football), journo (journalist), muso (musician), postie (postman), relo (relative), reno (renovation), Salvos (Salvation Army – charity), servo (petrol service station), smoko (smoking break or a break from work), sparkie (electrician), typo (typing mistake) and vego (vegetarian – noun or verb).

Then there are words shortened in other ways like ‘roo’ for kangaroo or ‘Macca’s’ for McDonalds.

Now let’s have a quick look at some Aussie slang that isn’t as obvious or formulaic. You might hear some of these spoken today, although not uniformly across the country as slang varies with age and location. Some of the older terms may have fallen out of use and some others are now used ironically for emphasis or humour.

Ankle biter – small child, ‘Where is the ankle biter?’

Bloke – older term still in use, meaning ‘a man, a guy’, as in ‘He’s a good bloke’.

Bogan – describes something or someone that’s unsophisticated. It can be used as a put-down or as a self-depreciating term of affection.

Bonza – an older term for excellent – ‘That’s really bonza!’

Bludger – a lazy person, as ‘He’s a bludger – hardly works all day’.

Budgie smugglers – Men’s Speedo-style swimwear.

Chinwag – an older term meaning to have a lot mostly friendly conversation with someone. ‘Katie and I just had a huge chinwag’.

Chook – chicken – ‘I’ve put a chook in the oven for dinner’.

Clanger – an oldie but a goodie – means an embarrassing mistake, ‘Matt came in and dropped a clanger and the conversation just stopped”.

Clucky – being ready to have a baby ‘She’s getting clucky for another one’.

Copper – older term for police, ‘Look out for the coppers on the freeway’.

Crikey – an expression of surprise as in, ‘Crikey it’s cold today!’

Daggy – unfashionable, not cool but can be used with affection, ‘I know I look daggy in this but it’s warm’.

Dag – someone who’s acting silly and can also be a term of endearment (Go figure).

Drongo – an older term for a silly person as in, ‘He’s a bit of a drongo’.

Fair dinkum — an older term for someone or something that’s honest and genuine, as in ‘That’s a fair dinkum meat pie’.

Noggin – an older term meaning ‘head’ as in, ‘Use your noggin before you act’ - think before you act.

Op Shop – short for Opportunity Shop – charity second-hand goods store.

Reckon – I think or agree, as in, ‘I reckon it will take 2 weeks’ or ‘I reckon!’.

Sheila – an older term for a woman which can be used disparagingly. ‘Ask that cranky old sheila over there’ or as an ironic term of endearment. It’s all about context.

Shout – means a round of drinks as in, ‘It’s my [turn to] shout everyone drinks’. ‘He wouldn’t shout in a shark attack’ (someone who avoids buying drinks for others).

Sweet – means good or agreed as in, ‘Sweet - see you at 9pm’.

Woop Woop – a far-away location as in, ‘He lives in Woop Woop, so it’ll be an expensive Uber home for him.’

Yonks – an older term meaning a long time as in, ‘I haven’t seen him in yonks!’

There’s lots more words where these came from and, as with any language, the best way to pick up the lingo is to chat to people. No worries, you’ll be right mate.

To hear a range of classic Aussie slang you could watch Kath & Kim (PG) orThey’re a Weird Mob (G) on Netflix available through Optus SubHub.

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