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Tennessee

Tennessee slang: regional words, sayings, and how locals talk.

This page collects regional vocabulary from Tennessee: 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 Tennessee picture.

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18 words

Sympathy on the surface, often condescending or passive-aggressive.

Texas · Georgia · Alabama · South Carolina · +3 more

Pants or trousers.

Alabama · Georgia · Tennessee · Kentucky · +2 more

Shopping cart.

Alabama · Georgia · South Carolina · Tennessee · +3 more

Crooked, askew, sideways.

Tennessee · Kentucky · West Virginia · Alabama · +1 more

Generic word for any soft drink (not just Coca-Cola).

Alabama · Georgia · Mississippi · Louisiana · +3 more

To adjust food or drink to taste (verb).

Texas · Tennessee · Georgia · Alabama · +1 more

Underwear (rural South / Appalachia).

Kentucky · Tennessee · West Virginia · Alabama · +1 more

About to do something; getting ready to.

Texas · Alabama · Georgia · Tennessee · +2 more

A small wooded valley between mountains.

West Virginia · Kentucky · Tennessee · Virginia · +2 more

To press (a button, a pedal).

Alabama · Tennessee · Georgia · Mississippi · +3 more

Over there (often pointing).

Texas · Tennessee · Alabama · Kentucky · +2 more

A paper bag (Appalachian).

West Virginia · Kentucky · Virginia · Tennessee · +1 more

To think, suppose, or expect.

Tennessee · Kentucky · West Virginia · Alabama · +2 more

Evening meal (when "dinner" is the midday meal).

Alabama · Mississippi · Georgia · Tennessee · +5 more

Second-person plural pronoun (you all).

Texas · Georgia · Alabama · Mississippi · +4 more

You all (Appalachian cousin of "yinz").

West Virginia · Kentucky · Tennessee · Virginia · +1 more

A child (young one).

Alabama · Tennessee · Kentucky · West Virginia · +2 more