Missouri slang: regional words, sayings, and how locals talk.
This page collects regional vocabulary from Missouri: slang you'll hear in conversation, sayings that travel through families, and pronunciations that mark a person as a local. Pick a city to narrow the list, or keep "All cities" to see the full Missouri picture.
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Breaded, deep-fried ravioli — a St. Louis appetizer.
Iowa-born gas-station pizza beloved across small-town Midwest.
An egg foo young patty on white bread with mayo, pickle, and lettuce, found only in St. Louis.
A thick slice cut from the pork shoulder (Boston butt), grilled and simmered in barbecue sauce as the centerpiece of St. Louis backyard cookouts.
A dense, flat St. Louis dessert with a gooey, buttery center and a crisp cake bottom.
Local shorthand for toasted ravioli, the breaded-and-fried ravioli appetizer invented in St. Louis.
A frozen-custard treat (famously from Ted Drewes) so thick it's handed to you upside down without spilling.
Heading out to gamble at one of the riverboat-style casinos along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
A major St. Louis street (and the local pronunciation 'GRAV-oy') typifying how locals say the city's French names their own way.
The classic St. Louis icebreaker, used to place someone by neighborhood, religion, and class.
The local accent's rendering of 'forty-four,' as in Interstate 44, showing the St. Louis o-to-a vowel shift.
The local name for the bakery-cafe chain known as Panera everywhere else, since it started in St. Louis.
Local nickname for Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas (KCK), clipped from 'Wyandotte'.
The older local pronunciation of 'Missouri' ending in an '-uh' sound, most common in western and northwestern Missouri including the Kansas City area.
The Kansas City and Midwestern name for the strip-loin steak that the East Coast calls a New York strip, reflecting the city's stockyard heritage.
The crispy, smoky tips of a smoked beef brisket, a signature dish of Kansas City barbecue.
Local term for the part of Kansas City lying north of the Missouri River.
An affectionate nickname for Kansas City rooted in its huge 19th-century stockyards and cattle trade.
A nickname for Kansas City dating to the Prohibition-era jazz heyday, evoking its boulevards, fountains, and freewheeling nightlife.
Missouri sits where the Midwest meets the South, and its speech reflects the seam. St. Louis has its own vocabulary — a "hoosier" there means a redneck or low-class person, not an Indianan — plus a strong attachment to where you went to high school. Older Missourians may "warsh" the dishes, slipping an r into "wash". The pop-versus-soda line runs through the state, and the Ozarks in the south carry Upland South mountain words. Two big cities, St. Louis and Kansas City, anchor opposite ends of it.
Missouri slang spans Midwestern and Southern features. St. Louis uses "hoosier" to mean a redneck, older speakers "warsh" (wash) with an inserted r, and the southern Ozarks carry Upland South vocabulary. The pop/soda divide runs through the state.
In St. Louis, "hoosier" is an insult meaning an unrefined, low-class, or redneck person — unique to the city and unrelated to the Indiana "Hoosier" nickname.
"Warsh" is a pronunciation of "wash" with an inserted r, heard among older speakers in Missouri and the lower Midwest — "warsh your hands". It also turns "Washington" into "Warshington".
