The Meaning of "Dih" on TikTok Is Not as Straightforward as Many Claim

Social media trends can move so quickly that it can be hard to keep up. If you don't check an app for a few weeks, you may have the experience of opening it back up again only to find viral memes that don't really make sense without context.

One of the more recent questions people are asking is: "What does 'dih' mean on TikTok?" The truth is, "dih" did not come exclusively from TikTok, but from AAVE, which is the birthplace of many slang trends co-opted by TikTok. Here's what we know.

In short, "dih" is a way of saying "d--k" without actually saying it. However, contrary to the belief of many, people don't use "dih" simply to censor themselves. This is best explained by commenters on a Reddit post complaining about people using the word. Bear with us as we get into it.

Reddit user @ZenOkami wrote in r/PetPeeves that it bothers them when people say "ahh" and "dih" instead of saying "a--" and "d--k." They went on to say that the word "unalive" is in the same boat.

"Unalive" is often used as a stand-in for "die" on social media platforms so that posts don't get flagged and taken down. However, this is very different than the use of "ahh" and "dih," another Redditor explains.

According to @tiggertom66, "[Ahh] started in AAVE, and isn’t even a full replacement for the word a--, so it’s not censorship." They continued, "You would only use it in descriptive exocentric compound words. New words made of two words with a meaning not immediately implied by its component words. Like how dumba-- doesn’t imply that your a-- is dumb."

"You won’t hear any adult saying 'ahh' when they’re talking about an actual butt. But you’ll hear it for things like dumba--, goofy a-- etc," they wrote.

To drive the point home, @tiggertom66 explained, "It’s a stylistic choice that doesn’t detract from the meaning because the meaning was never derived from the word a-- to begin with. In contrast, phrases like 'unalive' or 'grape' or 'sewer slide' are purely censorship."

In the comments under @ZenOkami's post, many Reddit users agree that while people now often attribute the "dih" slang term to teens on TikTok, its origins are in AAVE or African American Vernacular English.

Another Redditor added that using "dih" is more about the delivery. They wrote, "Sometimes its not really about censoring, more so, it smooths the delivery. People can get stuck on inflammatory words when trying to deliver a point but if you do it just right it can add a bit of flair and humor to what you're saying. I curse all the time but strategically and tactically."

Many posters in the same thread say that the use of "dih" has become "cringe" after it became co-opted by TikTok teens.

Fair warning: If you scroll through TikTok searching for answers about what exactly "dih" means, you'll find lots of memes where people write, "What's a dih? I'm a visual learner."