Slang dictionary

jawn

[jon]

July 16, 2018

What does jawn mean?

Jawn is Philadelphia slang for anything … literally anything.

Jawn is used as an all encompassing substitute for any person, place, or thing. Like this definition, an informative jawn.

Related words:

doodad
someshit
thingamajig
whatever

Where does jawn come from?

Examples of jawn

Zombie movie based in Philly "JAWN OF THE DEAD"

@theRegularDead, June, 2018

Check out this jawn: The Nationals are 10-4 against Philadelphia this season.

Scott Allen, The Washington Post, August, 2016

We don't need a dictionary telling us what we already know to be true: Jawn is a versatile jawn.

@PhiladelphiaGov, October, 2017

SEE MORE EXAMPLES

Who uses jawn?

Need to refer to something? A girl? A movie? Really, anything? Well, if you’re from Philadelphia, you may just use the every-word jawn.

Drake dated the young jawn? Smfh.

— The Humanoid Typhoon (@OD_King) July 6, 2018

Incredibles 2 was amazing honestly lol I gotta see it without the shrooms to make sure but that jawn was insane

— Stizz (@_2Planez) June 24, 2018

We like our regional identities, so it’s no surprise that folks from Philly take pride in jawn.

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 I think I want my tombstone to say “Emily Drinker: She Crushed That Jawn”#philly https://t.co/OvvC4Dn1ep

— Emily Drinker (@emilydrinker) July 10, 2018

philly2night.com

Philadelphians have a sense of humor about their jawn, though, and may joke about its use—or overuse.

using “jawn” if you’re not from philly is cultural appropriation

— ⒱ (@2cool4death) July 8, 2018

I just needta get outta this jawn and into my jawn

— Biscuit (@feckettbinley) June 24, 2018

Just Added

Midwest nice, brat, Earth Day, yassification, ♈ Aries Emoji

Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of jawn like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of jawn that will help our users expand their word mastery.