woke

What it means

Originally means being alert and aware of social and racial injustice. It's since been used both as sincere praise and, increasingly, as a mocking or pejorative label by critics of progressive politics.

Examples

• Stay woke and question what you read.
• She got woke about labor rights this year.
• Critics slammed the ad as performatively woke.
• He thinks he's woke but just lectures everyone.

Where it comes from

Comes from AAVE; 'stay woke' appears as far back as the 1930s and was revived by the Black Lives Matter movement around 2014. By the late 2010s it was also co-opted as a dismissive political buzzword.

Related slang