Ate

The Bridge: Gen-Z uses “ate” to pay the highest compliment to someone’s effort, the text/verbal equivalent of a shiny gold star sticker.

All This Eatery 

In this ever expanding digital age, compliments are evolving beyond simple likes and shares on Instagram and Tik Tok. In fact, Gen-Z is peppering their language with a culinary term to indicate their overwhelming approval. Hot and fresh out the kitchen, “Ate” is this week’s tasty new lingo.

Like most Z-llennial jargon, “Ate” is a one word response that flourishes in the comment section AND in real life. Impressed with Nicki Minaj’s VMA performance? Simply comment “Nicki Ate”, with the appropriate emoji’s of course (🦄). Super impressed with your bestie’s outfit? Say “Your fit ATE. No Crumbs”. Other Boomers may not understand, but we guarantee the Gen-Zs in your life will be impressed.

This is one of those words that you can substitute with related verbs like eat/eats, chew/chewed, or tears/tore.They’re all in the same family, so don’t be scared to get creative!

Before we get too ahead of ourselves with multiple language courses (please tell us you’re catching all the dining puns), check out this guide to using “Ate” in your everyday life.

• “Ate” – Nod of approval, mostly used in social media comments.
• “You ate that” – I’m very impressed by what you just did.
• “Ate that up, no crumbs” – I am extremely impressed by your behavior.
• “It didn’t eat” – Unfortunately, this experience was underwhelming.
• “Eatery” – An experience that is 10/10.
• “🍽️” – Self explanatory.

Think the Gen Bridge ate with this week’s lingo? Let us know in the comments @thegenbridge!