Yeet

2014Slang / exclamation / dance / viral videosemi-active

Also known as: Ya Yeet · Yeet Dance

Yeet is a 2014 choreographed dance from black Vine culture that evolved into slang for throwing something with maximum force and zero concern.

Yeet is an exclamation and slang verb that exploded out of black social media culture in early 2014, first as a choreographed dance on Vine and YouTube before evolving into the internet's favorite word for throwing something with maximum force and zero concern. The word was voted the American Dialect Society's 2018 Slang/Informal Word of the Year and was added to Dictionary.com in 20212.

slang memesaave memesdance memesvine memesword of the year memes

Overview

At its core, yeet is a flexible word with two main uses: an exclamation of excitement or energy, and a verb meaning to hurl something with great force5. The word sounds like a natural interjection, not too far from "Yes!" or "Aight!"2. It started as a dance move, morphed into a battle cry for throwing things, and eventually became a catch-all expression that Gen Z plugged into just about any sentence.

The yeet dance itself involves dipping one's shoulder in rhythmic steps with both hands extended and knees bent, like riding an invisible bicycle4. But most people today know yeet less as a dance and more as what you shout when you launch an empty soda can across a hallway.

The earliest known definition of yeet appeared on Urban Dictionary in 2008, where user Bubba Johnson described it as an exclamation used when throwing an object, particularly in basketball "when someone has shot a three-pointer that they are sure will go in the hoop"1. The word sat dormant for years before catching fire.

Yeet's real origin story begins in February 2014 in black social media circles. Houston-based producer and video blogger Marquis Trill credited five individuals as the dance's creators: @1ballout_, @Thefuhkinmann, @KronicCaviar, @AXXXXJXY, @JollyceM, and @SmashBro_KB4. The earliest known video of the dance was uploaded to YouTube by Milik Fullilove on February 12th, 2014, showing him calling out "Yeet!" while performing the moves2.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (first dance video), Vine (viral spread)
Key People
Milik Fullilove, 1ballout_, SmashBro_KB, Thefuhkinmann, KronicCaviar, AXXXXJXY, JollyceM, Lil Meatball, Jas Nicole
Date
2014 (viral breakout), 2008 (earliest known definition)

The earliest known definition of yeet appeared on Urban Dictionary in 2008, where user Bubba Johnson described it as an exclamation used when throwing an object, particularly in basketball "when someone has shot a three-pointer that they are sure will go in the hoop". The word sat dormant for years before catching fire.

Yeet's real origin story begins in February 2014 in black social media circles. Houston-based producer and video blogger Marquis Trill credited five individuals as the dance's creators: @1ballout_, @Thefuhkinmann, @KronicCaviar, @AXXXXJXY, @JollyceM, and @SmashBro_KB. The earliest known video of the dance was uploaded to YouTube by Milik Fullilove on February 12th, 2014, showing him calling out "Yeet!" while performing the moves.

How It Spread

The yeet dance picked up steam fast. On February 28th, 2014, hip-hop artist Quill released the song "YEET" featuring Showtime & Yeet Squad on YouTube. A Facebook page called "Yeet Dance" launched on March 1st and pulled in over 29,000 likes within its first month. On March 14th, Marquis Trill uploaded a tutorial on the dance, and Denzel Meechie posted a music video titled "Official #Yeet" on the same day.

The real explosion came on March 20th, 2014, when Viner Jas Nicole posted a video of a young boy nicknamed "Lil Meatball" performing the dance at a school track. That clip racked up over 122,000 revines and 104,000 likes within two weeks. Internet users ran with it, remixing the video and photoshopping stills of Lil Meatball into absurd contexts like playing baseball or drumming.

Yeet went viral a second time in 2016 when a young woman threw an empty beverage can into a crowded school hallway while shouting "Yeet!". This video shifted yeet's primary meaning away from the dance and toward its throwing definition. The clip helped lock in the idea that to yeet is to launch something with full commitment and no regard for consequences.

After fading briefly, yeet surged back in March 2018 when users on r/dankmemes started posting memes riffing on the word in deliberately absurd contexts, often paired with the crying laughing emoji and OK emoji. These posts treated yeet as an all-purpose punchline, sometimes as meta-commentary on people wearing the word out. The American Dialect Society recognized the cultural moment by voting yeet their 2018 Slang/Informal Word of the Year, defining it as "an indication of surprise or excitement".

Gamers adopted yeet for powerful in-game moves, and YouTuber Logan Paul popularized the variant "ya yeet" as a catchphrase. By 2021, Dictionary.com added yeet to its database as part of a 300-word update. Benjamin Morse, a visiting lecturer in New Media at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, told TODAY.com that yeet had become "something of a linguistic Swiss Army Knife" that Gen Z and Millennials plug in anywhere from surprise to enthusiasm to frustration.

Platforms

VineYouTubeTwitchRedditTwitterTikTokDiscord

Timeline

2014

Yeet emerges from viral throwing videos

2015-2018

Term gains massive popularity across all platforms

2016-01-01

Yeet reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2017-01-01

Brands and companies started using Yeet in marketing

2019+

Reaches mainstream recognition; included in dictionaries

2025-01-01

Yeet is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

Yeet functions as an exclamation, a verb, and a general-purpose interjection. The louder and more committed the delivery, the better.

1

As a throwing exclamation: pick up an object, wind up, and launch it with full force while shouting 'YEET!' at the moment of release

2

As a verb: use it anywhere you would say 'throw' but want to imply reckless velocity ('I yeeted my phone across the room') — the community-accepted past tense is 'yote'

3

As a general exclamation: drop it into conversation like 'hell yes' or 'let's go' when something good happens

4

As a nonsense ad-lib: insert 'yeet' into sentences for comedic effect without any specific meaning, the way rappers use ad-libs

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Yeet crossed over from internet slang to mainstream recognition on multiple fronts. The American Dialect Society's 2018 Word of the Year vote gave it institutional legitimacy. Dictionary.com's 2021 addition made it semi-official.

The word hit network television during a 2020 Saturday Night Live sketch where Pete Davidson and Timothée Chalamet played rappers who broke a streaming record on SoundCloud, yelling "yeet" on repeat. WWE wrestler Jey Uso worked yeet into his promos and merchandise, using its vague universal appeal to connect with younger fans.

The quarterly journal American Speech tracked yeet's trajectory in its "Among the New Words" column, noting its 2014 growth through dance videos on black social media and its later adoption by gamers, particularly Fortnite players who used it for powerful defeat moves. The journal also offered a blunt assessment of yeet's future: "Yeet may, however, be reaching the end of its slang trajectory, descending like a quickly tossed soda can".

Fun Facts

The internet never settled on yeet's past tense. "Yote" and "yeeted" both have passionate defenders, and the debate itself became a meme.

Yeet's 2008 Urban Dictionary definition mentioned using it "as one ejaculates," a meaning the word has thankfully outgrown.

The word survived long enough to get added to Dictionary.com in 2021, one of 300 new entries that year.

The American Speech journal's "Among the New Words" column gave yeet a formal linguistic analysis, one of the rare slang terms to get academic treatment while still in active use.

Shakespeare yeet jokes became a whole genre of tweet: "To yeet, or not to yeet: that is the question".

Derivatives & Variations

Yeetable (capable of being yeeted)

A variation of Yeet

(2014)

Yeetus (intensified version)

A variation of Yeet

(2014)

Yeet variations in different contexts and languages

A variation of Yeet

(2014)

Frequently Asked Questions

Yeet

2014Slang / exclamation / dance / viral videosemi-active

Also known as: Ya Yeet · Yeet Dance

Yeet is a 2014 choreographed dance from black Vine culture that evolved into slang for throwing something with maximum force and zero concern.

Yeet is an exclamation and slang verb that exploded out of black social media culture in early 2014, first as a choreographed dance on Vine and YouTube before evolving into the internet's favorite word for throwing something with maximum force and zero concern. The word was voted the American Dialect Society's 2018 Slang/Informal Word of the Year and was added to Dictionary.com in 2021.

slang memes aave memes dance memes vine memes word of the year memes

Overview

At its core, yeet is a flexible word with two main uses: an exclamation of excitement or energy, and a verb meaning to hurl something with great force. The word sounds like a natural interjection, not too far from "Yes!" or "Aight!". It started as a dance move, morphed into a battle cry for throwing things, and eventually became a catch-all expression that Gen Z plugged into just about any sentence.

The yeet dance itself involves dipping one's shoulder in rhythmic steps with both hands extended and knees bent, like riding an invisible bicycle. But most people today know yeet less as a dance and more as what you shout when you launch an empty soda can across a hallway.

The earliest known definition of yeet appeared on Urban Dictionary in 2008, where user Bubba Johnson described it as an exclamation used when throwing an object, particularly in basketball "when someone has shot a three-pointer that they are sure will go in the hoop". The word sat dormant for years before catching fire.

Yeet's real origin story begins in February 2014 in black social media circles. Houston-based producer and video blogger Marquis Trill credited five individuals as the dance's creators: @1ballout_, @Thefuhkinmann, @KronicCaviar, @AXXXXJXY, @JollyceM, and @SmashBro_KB. The earliest known video of the dance was uploaded to YouTube by Milik Fullilove on February 12th, 2014, showing him calling out "Yeet!" while performing the moves.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (first dance video), Vine (viral spread)
Key People
Milik Fullilove, 1ballout_, SmashBro_KB, Thefuhkinmann, KronicCaviar, AXXXXJXY, JollyceM, Lil Meatball, Jas Nicole
Date
2014 (viral breakout), 2008 (earliest known definition)

The earliest known definition of yeet appeared on Urban Dictionary in 2008, where user Bubba Johnson described it as an exclamation used when throwing an object, particularly in basketball "when someone has shot a three-pointer that they are sure will go in the hoop". The word sat dormant for years before catching fire.

Yeet's real origin story begins in February 2014 in black social media circles. Houston-based producer and video blogger Marquis Trill credited five individuals as the dance's creators: @1ballout_, @Thefuhkinmann, @KronicCaviar, @AXXXXJXY, @JollyceM, and @SmashBro_KB. The earliest known video of the dance was uploaded to YouTube by Milik Fullilove on February 12th, 2014, showing him calling out "Yeet!" while performing the moves.

How It Spread

The yeet dance picked up steam fast. On February 28th, 2014, hip-hop artist Quill released the song "YEET" featuring Showtime & Yeet Squad on YouTube. A Facebook page called "Yeet Dance" launched on March 1st and pulled in over 29,000 likes within its first month. On March 14th, Marquis Trill uploaded a tutorial on the dance, and Denzel Meechie posted a music video titled "Official #Yeet" on the same day.

The real explosion came on March 20th, 2014, when Viner Jas Nicole posted a video of a young boy nicknamed "Lil Meatball" performing the dance at a school track. That clip racked up over 122,000 revines and 104,000 likes within two weeks. Internet users ran with it, remixing the video and photoshopping stills of Lil Meatball into absurd contexts like playing baseball or drumming.

Yeet went viral a second time in 2016 when a young woman threw an empty beverage can into a crowded school hallway while shouting "Yeet!". This video shifted yeet's primary meaning away from the dance and toward its throwing definition. The clip helped lock in the idea that to yeet is to launch something with full commitment and no regard for consequences.

After fading briefly, yeet surged back in March 2018 when users on r/dankmemes started posting memes riffing on the word in deliberately absurd contexts, often paired with the crying laughing emoji and OK emoji. These posts treated yeet as an all-purpose punchline, sometimes as meta-commentary on people wearing the word out. The American Dialect Society recognized the cultural moment by voting yeet their 2018 Slang/Informal Word of the Year, defining it as "an indication of surprise or excitement".

Gamers adopted yeet for powerful in-game moves, and YouTuber Logan Paul popularized the variant "ya yeet" as a catchphrase. By 2021, Dictionary.com added yeet to its database as part of a 300-word update. Benjamin Morse, a visiting lecturer in New Media at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, told TODAY.com that yeet had become "something of a linguistic Swiss Army Knife" that Gen Z and Millennials plug in anywhere from surprise to enthusiasm to frustration.

Platforms

VineYouTubeTwitchRedditTwitterTikTokDiscord

Timeline

2014

Yeet emerges from viral throwing videos

2015-2018

Term gains massive popularity across all platforms

2016-01-01

Yeet reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2017-01-01

Brands and companies started using Yeet in marketing

2019+

Reaches mainstream recognition; included in dictionaries

2025-01-01

Yeet is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

Yeet functions as an exclamation, a verb, and a general-purpose interjection. The louder and more committed the delivery, the better.

1

As a throwing exclamation: pick up an object, wind up, and launch it with full force while shouting 'YEET!' at the moment of release

2

As a verb: use it anywhere you would say 'throw' but want to imply reckless velocity ('I yeeted my phone across the room') — the community-accepted past tense is 'yote'

3

As a general exclamation: drop it into conversation like 'hell yes' or 'let's go' when something good happens

4

As a nonsense ad-lib: insert 'yeet' into sentences for comedic effect without any specific meaning, the way rappers use ad-libs

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Yeet crossed over from internet slang to mainstream recognition on multiple fronts. The American Dialect Society's 2018 Word of the Year vote gave it institutional legitimacy. Dictionary.com's 2021 addition made it semi-official.

The word hit network television during a 2020 Saturday Night Live sketch where Pete Davidson and Timothée Chalamet played rappers who broke a streaming record on SoundCloud, yelling "yeet" on repeat. WWE wrestler Jey Uso worked yeet into his promos and merchandise, using its vague universal appeal to connect with younger fans.

The quarterly journal American Speech tracked yeet's trajectory in its "Among the New Words" column, noting its 2014 growth through dance videos on black social media and its later adoption by gamers, particularly Fortnite players who used it for powerful defeat moves. The journal also offered a blunt assessment of yeet's future: "Yeet may, however, be reaching the end of its slang trajectory, descending like a quickly tossed soda can".

Fun Facts

The internet never settled on yeet's past tense. "Yote" and "yeeted" both have passionate defenders, and the debate itself became a meme.

Yeet's 2008 Urban Dictionary definition mentioned using it "as one ejaculates," a meaning the word has thankfully outgrown.

The word survived long enough to get added to Dictionary.com in 2021, one of 300 new entries that year.

The American Speech journal's "Among the New Words" column gave yeet a formal linguistic analysis, one of the rare slang terms to get academic treatment while still in active use.

Shakespeare yeet jokes became a whole genre of tweet: "To yeet, or not to yeet: that is the question".

Derivatives & Variations

Yeetable (capable of being yeeted)

A variation of Yeet

(2014)

Yeetus (intensified version)

A variation of Yeet

(2014)

Yeet variations in different contexts and languages

A variation of Yeet

(2014)

Frequently Asked Questions