On social media platforms, sometimes people can come across words that they have never heard of before. In the online world, it is common that people to abbreviate or invent new words, and when those words get popular, they are widespread across different social media apps. One of the words is “sus”. What does that mean and where does that come from? Let’s find out!
sus meaning?
According to the Urban Dictionary, sus means:
“Giving the impression that something is questionable or dishonest; suspicious. This word gained popularity with being the catchphrase in the online multiplayer game among us.”
Urban Dictionary
So, sus is an abbreviation of “suspicious”. When you see someone acting suspiciously on Snapchat, you can use this simple word to describe it. Although that term is used online, it is less often used in real life.
Where does it come from?
If you have already played this popular online game, Among Us, you may have already known this word. The word comes from that mobile game.
What is Among Us?
Among Us is one of the most popular video games recently. Thanks to its popularity, it has become a viral video game that many people talk about. It is a social-deduction game where players of the game have to guess, what the game calls, imposters among innocent crewmates.
During the game, crewmates get a chance to discuss guessing who would be imposters. They use the text message to exchange their thoughts and guess who would be imposters. The spaceship-themed multiplayer game lets the crewmates finish mini missions while imposters assassinate crewmates secretly. As the crewmates do their missions, when they find the behaviors of someone suspicious (or shall I say sus?), they call for a meeting and share their findings.
During the meeting, when they want to say someone is suspicious, they will say something like “red is kinda sus!”. (In Among Us, it is common to call someone by the color of his or her character). That is the origin of sus.
sus in social media
Now we know what sus stands for. We mentioned that social media users use these types of slangs. Is Snapchat the only social media where sus appears? It is not. Social media platforms are online venues where people share their culture and experiences.
On Tik Tok, there are numerous posts with the “sus” tag. How about on the Instagram app? The word sus appears on close to two million posts as of August 2022. If you search “sus” on YouTube, you will be able to many Youtube videos related to the game and the word.
It seems that the word has become a universal Internet slang that many Internet users know and use every day.
Wrapping up
We learned the meaning of sus and the origin of the word. On the Snapchat app, users use the word as an equivalent to “suspicious” just like people do on Among Us. Although the word was born online, you can use it with your friends in the real world in a fun way. Mind that it is not a formal language so you don’t want to use it in a formal setting.
If you want to find out more about Snapchat, check these articles.
