“Lowkenuinely”: Why Your Kids’ New Favourite TikTok Slang Isn’t Just Brain Rot

Recently, my eighth grader casually dropped a new word into our conversation: lowkenuinely. At first, I assumed I’d misheard her. But as a mom to teens and preteens, I’ve learned that the most nonsensical-sounding Gen Alpha slang is often the kind that sticks the hardest.

According to Merriam-Webster, lowkenuinely—a blend of low-key and genuinely—means “to nonchalantly characterize an emotion, desire, or action as being sincere.” In simpler terms, it’s a way of saying something is real or heartfelt, but in TikTok slang.

This past week, I’ve heard my kids say everything from “I lowkenuinely love apples with cheese” to “The Lion King is lowkenuinely the best movie of all time.” The word also appears in countless variations, spellings, and exaggerations.

It’s easy for parents to label slang like this as “brain rot”. But language evolution, especially among teens, is nothing new. We were kids once, too. For many generations, teens and young adults have played with words to express their identity. The slang I used as a teen was a little less difficult to comprehend, but maybe that’s just my age showing. In the 2000’s, we’d throw around phrases like “that’s sick” or “that’s tight”, which was millennial slang for “that’s cool”. I still remember older generations teasing me by asking if I wasn’t feeling well when I called something “sick”.

After my kids started throwing "lowkenuinely" around, I decided to log into TikTok to really figure out what it meant. I was surprised to come across an account called EntomologyNerd. With over 800,000 followers, Adam Aleksic, a Harvard-educated linguist, breaks down the linguistics behind viral slang, including how social media shapes culture and language. Aleksic even has a video about the word lowkenuinely. In it, he explains that while the portmanteau shouldn't make sense, it does, and it follows a trend of adding emphasis or emotion to words we use every day. He points to the use of "legitimately", "actually", and "seriously" as examples of words that used to mean a hard truth but are often to express strong opinions now.

Understanding slang like lowkenuinely doesn’t mean parents need to start using it (please don’t, unless you want to hear your kids groan very loudly). But paying attention can open the door to better conversations with our kids, while reminding us that playful language is often a sign of creativity, not decay.

Lowkenuinely, the kids are gonna be alright.