signifying

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noun

sig·​ni·​fy·​ing ˈsig-nə-ˌfī-iŋ 

variants or less commonly signifyin'

ˈsig-nə-ˌfī-in 

or signifyin

African American English

: an African American linguistic practice involving the indirect expression of ideas especially through playful gibes and clever often preposterous put-downs

"Twitter lets the Black community do the thing that it does best, which is signifying—being able to use wordplay or turns of phrase to change the meaning of certain events, to either be more humorous or more critical."

—André Brock

Subjects of signifyin range from physical appearance to Black institutions to current global affairs, and everything in between.

—Shingi Mavima

also : dozens

signifying

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present participle of signify

Examples of signifying in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Naturally, conservatives wanted Southern rock signifying, too. —Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 15 Dec. 2024

But after 162 games, the finished product at Meyer’s home in New Windsor displayed Baltimore’s first winning season since 2016 in a unique way — with orange representing home wins, black signifying road wins and white and grey reserved for home and road losses. —Andy Kostka, Baltimore Sun, 14 Oct. 2022

These categories are allegories for broader economic processes that a single word is incapable of signifying. —Wired, 14 July 2022

Many immigrant communities have a form of signifying. —Jason Parham, Wired, 15 July 2021

His millennial-friendly update to such signifying was to rebrand it all as a personal affirmation. —Chris Martins, Billboard, 8 June 2017

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1926, in the meaning defined above