smol
adjective
| SMAWL
Adorably small
What does smol mean?
Smol is Internet slang for “small,” playfully used to describe someone or something, especially a baby animal, that is little in an intensely cute way.
Examples of smol
Every smol girly needs a tol [tall] BFF!
—Kayla Harrington, BuzzFeed, 21 Nov. 2022
The baby opossums are growing up. Circumspect and careful, still smol enuf to be morsel.
—…a fosterer shared the plight of Teena, a smol 8-year-old doggo whose owners were forced to give her up after 7 long years in their care.
—My inside voice when I look at Bear “hims smol boi. hims so pure. Just a baby puppy. Little floof. Tiny boi” / That puppy belly though 🥺 / Now hims 75 pounds but still my baby boi
—Smol win for today: Getting dinner alone outside
—
Where does smol come from?
Smol is an intentional misspelling of “small.” While its exact origins are unclear, it spread online in the mid-2010s, especially as popularized by DoggoLingo, a form of Internet slang resembling baby talk and directed at pets, other animals, and sometimes people and objects. Among other features, DoggoLingo uses a variety of misspellings—such as tol for “tall,” chonky for “chunky,” birb for “bird,” and snek for “snake”—to express deliberately twee affection for animals on social media. Smol is specifically intended as a cutesy way to describe someone or something endearingly tiny, little, or short. Smol, and additional DoggoLingo words, join other instances in Internet slang where words are deliberately misspelled or modified for various reasons, such as for tone, irony, convenience, and group identification.
How is smol used?
Smol is most widely used of small or baby animals, especially when perceived to be exceptionally (almost painfully) adorable. It is also commonly used to characterize people seen as charmingly short, small, and youthful in stature as well as miniature objects—sometimes even other things that are slight, simple, or otherwise minor in a precious way. It frequently appears conjunction with other Internet slang terms, including from DoggoLingo. For example: “My new kitten is such a heckin’ smol boi. I hope he makes frens with his tol woofer!”
More Slang Words
