so basically — definitions, explained

A semantically vacant meme expression of Gen Alpha origin, deployed as an in-group signal rather than for propositional content.

so basically: It means nothing. That's the joke. Schools banned it anyway.

So ubiquitous schools reportedly tried to ban it.

Systems capable of autonomous goal-directed behavior, decomposing objectives into actions executed with limited human oversight.

so basically: AI that does stuff for you instead of just talking at you.

The buzzword of 2026, per basically every glossary.

Artificial General Intelligence: a hypothetical system exhibiting human-level competence across arbitrary cognitive domains.

so basically: AI that's good at everything, not just one thing. Doesn't exist. Ask again next year.

Low-quality, mass-produced synthetic media generated with minimal human curation, optimized for volume over value.

so basically: Lazy AI junk flooding your feed.

Dictionary.com literally added it to the dictionary this year.

Endovascular dilation of a stenosed artery, typically via balloon catheter with or without stent placement.

so basically: They inflate a tiny balloon inside your clogged artery to squish it open.

Simultaneous purchase and sale of equivalent assets across markets to exploit price discrepancies.

so basically: Buy it where it's cheap, sell it where it's not. Free money, briefly.

The performative accumulation of social mystique through calculated displays of effortless composure.

so basically: Doing cool stuff just to look cool.

A prolonged decline of 20% or more from recent market highs, accompanied by pervasive pessimism.

so basically: Everything's down and everyone's sad.

Extended voluntary confinement to one's bed for passive leisure activities, framed as self-care.

so basically: Staying in bed all day on purpose and calling it wellness.

A neoplasm lacking the capacity for invasion or metastasis; not malignant.

so basically: A lump that won't try to kill you.

Removal and histopathological examination of tissue from a living body to establish a precise diagnosis.

so basically: They snip a tiny piece of you and look at it under a microscope.

A region of spacetime where gravitational curvature is sufficient to prevent the escape of electromagnetic radiation.

so basically: Gravity so strong even light can't leave. A cosmic no-refunds policy.

The effective annual return on a debt security, inversely related to its market price.

so basically: What lending your money actually pays. When it jumps, someone's scared.

Perceived cognitive decline attributed to overconsumption of low-value, algorithmically-served short-form content.

so basically: What scrolling junk content all day does to you.

A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without undergoing permanent chemical change.

so basically: Speeds up the reaction, walks away untouched. Chemistry's middleman.

Interest computed on both the initial principal and previously accumulated interest.

so basically: Your money makes money, then THAT money makes money.

Aggregate processing capacity, typically GPU resources, required for training and serving machine learning models.

so basically: The expensive chips everyone is fighting over.

The discipline of architecting the full information environment supplied to a language model, including memory, retrieval, tools, and state.

so basically: Feeding the AI the right stuff so it stops being dumb.

The 2026 successor to "prompt engineering."

Of a person: beset by imminent and likely irremediable misfortune.

so basically: In big trouble. Gen Z for "you're toast."

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats: a bacterial adaptive immune mechanism repurposed for programmable genome editing.

so basically: Find-and-replace for DNA.

A non-luminous form of matter inferred from gravitational effects on visible structures, comprising approximately 27% of the universe's mass-energy.

so basically: Invisible stuff holding galaxies together. We can't see it, we just see what it does.

Willfully delusional optimism maintained in defiance of contradicting evidence, often regarding aspirations or relationships.

so basically: Delusional, but as a lifestyle choice.

Allocation of capital across uncorrelated assets to reduce exposure to idiosyncratic risk.

so basically: Don't put all your eggs in one basket, with math.

Compulsive continued consumption of negative news content despite its adverse psychological effects.

so basically: Can't stop reading bad news at 2am.

Abnormal accumulation of interstitial fluid within tissues, producing observable swelling.

so basically: You're puffy because water is stuck where it shouldn't be.

A thermodynamic quantity representing the number of microscopic configurations consistent with a system's macroscopic state; the tendency toward disorder.

so basically: Everything falls apart on its own. Your room, the universe, all of it.

Exchange-Traded Fund: a pooled investment vehicle holding a basket of assets, traded intraday on exchanges.

so basically: A bundle of stocks you buy in one click.

A planet orbiting a star other than the Sun, detected via transit photometry, radial velocity, or direct imaging.

so basically: A planet around someone else's sun.

A party legally obligated to act in the best interest of another, subordinating their own interests.

so basically: An advisor who is legally required to not screw you.

Continued training of a pre-trained model on a narrower dataset to specialize its behavior for a target domain.

so basically: Sending a smart AI to trade school.

Reproducing by fission; inclined to break into separate parts or factions.

so basically: Tends to split apart.

Merriam-Webster lookup spike after World Cup commentators used it about teams falling apart.

Generative Engine Optimization: the practice of structuring content to maximize citation and visibility within AI-generated answers.

so basically: SEO, but for getting ChatGPT to mention you.

Marketers' new obsession now that nobody clicks links.

A class of incretin-mimetic agents that potentiate glucose-dependent insulin secretion and delay gastric emptying.

so basically: Ozempic. A shot that makes you feel full so you eat less.

Half the internet is on it or arguing about it.

The recognizable stylistic register of AI-generated prose, characterized by formulaic constructions and elevated diction.

so basically: That AI writing smell. "Delve," "tapestry," you know it when you see it.

Generation of fluent but factually unsupported content by a language model, presented with unwarranted confidence.

so basically: The AI made it up and said it like a fact.

Persistently elevated arterial blood pressure exceeding established clinical thresholds.

so basically: Your blood is pushing on your pipes too hard.

Arising spontaneously from an obscure or unknown cause; a primary disease without identifiable etiology.

so basically: Medical for "we have no idea why this is happening."

The computational process of executing a trained model to produce outputs from novel inputs.

so basically: The AI actually running. Training is school; inference is the job.

A sustained increase in the general price level, eroding the purchasing power of a currency.

so basically: Your money buys less than it used to.

Insertion of an endotracheal tube to maintain airway patency and enable mechanical ventilation.

so basically: Breathing tube down the throat. A machine breathes for you.

Pertaining to a restriction in blood supply to tissues, causing a shortage of oxygen needed for cellular metabolism.

so basically: A body part isn't getting enough blood.

Top of the AAMC list of words doctors say that patients don't get.

Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

so basically: Rule by the worst people available.

Topped Merriam-Webster's lookup charts this summer.

Cerebral thermoregulation via cerebrospinal fluid circulation and vascular heat exchange, maintaining the brain within a narrow thermal envelope.

so basically: Your brain is literally liquid cooled, like a gaming PC.

A 3,200-upvote ELI5 answer on why brains don't overheat but CPUs do.

The degree to which an asset can be converted to cash rapidly without materially affecting its price.

so basically: How fast you can turn a thing into cash without a fire sale.

Large Language Model: a transformer-based neural network trained on massive text corpora to predict token sequences.

so basically: Extremely fancy autocomplete.

A portmanteau of 'lowkey' and 'genuinely,' expressing understated sincerity.

so basically: Quietly, but for real.

Characterized by uncontrolled proliferation, invasion of adjacent tissue, and potential for metastasis.

so basically: A lump that will try to kill you. Deal with it now.

The aggregate market value of a company's outstanding equity shares.

so basically: What the whole company costs at today's stock price.

Surgical removal of all breast tissue, typically as treatment for or prophylaxis against breast cancer.

so basically: No more boobs.

The founding entry. The whole site exists because of this one.

The dissemination of malignant cells from a primary neoplasm to non-contiguous anatomical sites.

so basically: The cancer packed a suitcase and moved somewhere else.

Plastic particulates smaller than five millimeters resulting from the degradation of consumer and industrial polymer products.

so basically: Tiny plastic bits. They're in the ocean, the fish, and you.

An adjective denoting mediocrity; conspicuously average quality unworthy of enthusiasm or contempt.

so basically: Aggressively okay. Not bad enough to hate, not good enough to care.

Messenger ribonucleic acid: a transient transcript conveying genetic instructions from DNA to ribosomes for protein synthesis.

so basically: The recipe card your cells read to build stuff.

Capable of processing and generating multiple data modalities, including text, images, audio, and video, within a unified model.

so basically: The AI has eyes and ears now, not just a keyboard.

Necrosis of heart muscle resulting from prolonged interruption of coronary blood supply.

so basically: Heart attack. Part of the heart's blood got cut off and that part died.

The capacity of neural circuits to reorganize structurally and functionally in response to experience.

so basically: Your brain rewires itself. Old dogs CAN learn new tricks.

Distribution of a model's trained parameters for public download, without necessarily disclosing training data or code.

so basically: You can download the AI's brain and run it yourself.

Pertaining to a one-sided psychological relationship wherein an audience member develops perceived intimacy with a media figure.

so basically: You feel like the streamer is your friend. They don't know you exist.

The act of snubbing a present companion in favor of attending to one's mobile telephone.

so basically: Ignoring the person in front of you for your phone. Phone plus snubbing.

A measurable improvement in condition attributable to the expectation of treatment rather than the treatment itself.

so basically: Fake pill works because you believed in it.

The progressive degradation of platform quality as value is reallocated from users to business customers and ultimately to shareholders.

so basically: Why every app gets worse after you start loving it.

A forecast of the probable course and outcome of a disease based on clinical evidence.

so basically: The doctor's best guess at how this ends for you.

An adversarial technique embedding malicious instructions within input data to override a model's intended directives.

so basically: Tricking the AI with hidden instructions, like slipping a note into its homework.

Large-scale central bank asset purchases intended to inject liquidity and suppress long-term interest rates.

so basically: The central bank prints money and buys stuff to keep the economy moving.

Reduction of numerical precision in model parameters to decrease memory footprint and inference cost.

so basically: Shrinking the AI's brain so it fits on your computer. Slightly dumber, way cheaper.

A phenomenon wherein the quantum states of particles remain correlated such that measurement of one instantaneously constrains the other, regardless of separation.

so basically: Two particles share one fate, even across the galaxy. Poke one, the other flinches.

Pain perceived at a site distant from its point of origin, spreading along a nerve distribution pathway.

so basically: It hurts here, but the pain travels over there.

Retrieval-Augmented Generation: an architecture wherein a model retrieves relevant external documents prior to response synthesis.

so basically: The AI checks its notes before answering instead of guessing.

Content deliberately engineered to provoke anger, thereby maximizing engagement metrics through outrage-driven interaction.

so basically: Posts designed to make you mad so you'll comment.

Officially added to the dictionary this year.

A sustained global shortage of random-access memory driven by hyperscaler datacenter procurement for AI workloads.

so basically: Big Tech bought all the memory chips, so your laptop costs more.

Coined this year as RAM prices spiked.

A significant, broad-based decline in economic activity, conventionally marked by two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.

so basically: The economy shrinks and everyone gets nervous.

A period during which the signs and symptoms of a disease abate or disappear, without implying cure.

so basically: The disease went quiet. Maybe gone, maybe napping.

Charisma, particularly as applied to romantic or flirtatious persuasion; derived from the middle syllable of 'charisma.'

so basically: Game. Charm. The ability to talk to your crush without crashing.

In any spontaneous process, the total entropy of an isolated system does not decrease.

so basically: You can't win, you can't break even, and mess always increases.

A life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection.

so basically: An infection made your whole body panic, and the panic is what's killing you.

The sale of borrowed securities in anticipation of repurchasing them at a lower price, profiting from the decline.

so basically: Betting money that a stock will go down.

The concurrence of economic stagnation and elevated inflation, resistant to conventional monetary remedies.

so basically: Prices go up AND the economy is stuck. Worst of both.

A narrow maritime passage between Iran and Oman linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman.

so basically: The narrow sea passage between Iran and Oman that carries a major share of the world's oil shipments.

A material exhibiting zero electrical resistance and magnetic flux expulsion below a critical temperature.

so basically: A wire with zero friction for electricity. Physicists' white whale at room temperature.

The delivery of computing resources, including storage, processing and software, over the internet from remotely hosted servers.

so basically: Someone else's computer. You rent it over the internet.

A sudden, irreversible onset of aversion toward a romantic interest, triggered by a specific observed behavior.

so basically: One tiny thing they did just killed the whole crush. Forever.

The atomic unit of text processed by a language model, typically a subword segment produced by a tokenizer.

so basically: Word chunks. The AI reads and bills you in chunks.

An imperative suggesting the addressee disengage from online discourse and re-establish contact with physical reality.

so basically: Log off. Go outside. You've been online too long.

The systematic prioritization of patients based on the severity of their condition and available resources.

so basically: Deciding who gets helped first. Sickest wins.

Of, relating to, or containing the vessels that conduct blood or lymph through the body.

so basically: About your blood tubes.

Software development conducted primarily through natural-language delegation to AI agents, with minimal direct code authorship.

so basically: Telling the AI what you want and hoping.

HN's current favorite fight: it builds your pipeline but can't explain it six months later.

A strategy of borrowing in low-interest-rate Japanese yen to fund positions in higher-yielding foreign assets.

so basically: Borrow cheap Japanese money, bet it elsewhere, pocket the difference. Until it unwinds.

The 4,600-upvote ELI5 thread of the month, thanks to the yen crashing.