Lesbian slang dictionary: The big queer lingo glossary
If you’re a baby dyke and don’t know what a baby dyke is, you’ll likely need to have a quick flick through this glossary of lesbian slang…
Before you become a victim of cliterference while hitting on a stud, or before you discover that your chapstick lesbian friend has done a u-haul with her pillow princess girlfriend.
If you have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about, carry on scrolling through our big fat lesbian dictionary to learn the lingo.
Related: The Ultimate LGBT Glossary – All your questions answered
100-Footer
Someone so stereotypically queer that you can spot them from 100 feet away.
BABY DYKE
Someone who recently came out as a lesbian.
BED DEATH
The stereotypical idea that relationships between two women will eventually lead to a sexless life. Pretty derogatory, especially when used by people who assume that heteronormative sex is so fascinating that it’s still interesting after 10 years together.
Beersexual
Someone who will only engage in lesbian activities when under the influence of alcohol.
Bicurious
Someone who has shown an interest in other women and may have experimented.
BOTTOM
Someone who is submissive in bed.
BULL DYKE
The most masculine of butch lesbians.
BUTCH
A lesbian who presents masculine.
CELESBIAN
A famous lesbian. Check out our handy list of famous lesbians and bisexuals.
CHAPSTICK LESBIAN
Some who presents somewhere between masculine and feminine. Somewhere between butch and femme. Doesn’t wear lipstick – but might wear chapstick. (Or carmex.) May identify as stem or soft butch.
CIS-HET
Used by the queer community to describe someone who is cisgender and heterosexual.
CLITERFERENCE
When someone gets in the way of you hitting on or getting it on with someone you’re interested in. It’s the lesbian version of cock blocking, basically.
DIESEL DYKE
Another butch variety of lesbian, similar to bull dyke, but associated with trucks, short hair and plaid shirts.
DOPPELBANGER
Someone who is attracted to people who look just like them.
Drag king
A person who dresses in clothing more conventionally worn by men with exaggerated masculinity and in masculine gender roles for entertainment or fashion. Not all drag kings are queer women, though most are.
DYKE
Another term for lesbian. Derogatory when used by people outside of the LGBT+ community, but reclaimed by lesbians, and widely accepted within the queer community.
DYKON
A famous woman popular among queer women and seen as a gay icon. Not necessarily gay herself.
FEMME
A feminine lesbian.
GAYBOURHOOD
A place where there are loads of queers. It could be a club, pub or shop, or an entire town, like Brighton and San Francisco.
GLAMOUR BUTCH
A butch lesbian who likes to dress in fine attire, like luxury suits and tuxedos, or whatever glamorous butch clothes they fancy.
GOLD STAR
A lesbian who has never had sex with a man.
Some people find this term offensive because it creates a hierarchy that devalues bisexual people, while some find the concept of virginity problematic because it’s heteronormative. So, it implies that penis-in-vagina sex is the only sex that counts, thus erasing the experiences of non-hetero people. Virginity is dependent upon being a heterosexual, cisgender man or woman and therefore neglects relationships and people that fall outside of this. Snore.
GOLDEN PENIS
A term used by strange men who believe that they can cure lesbians with their golden penises.
Granola dyke
A lesbian who is vegan/vegetarian and enjoys wearing birkenstocks, eating tofu, listening to folk music, and playing the acoustic guitar, etc. Obviously a bit of a stereotype.
HIGH FEMME
A lesbian who presents extremely feminine.
Lesbian potential (LP)
“She’s got high LP.” Or, “She’s got low LP.” Used when scouting for, well, lesbian potential.
LIPSTICK LESBIAN
A femme, or feminine lesbian. Heterosexual people love commenting on lipstick lesbians – “You’re too pretty to be a lesbian,” or, “You don’t look like a lesbian.” Not only is this boring and tedious for femmes, it also implies that lesbians who aren’t femme are not attractive. Here are some more femme/lipstick lesbian issues.
Pillow Princess
Someone who is usually the receiver in sex rather than the giver. This term can be controversial because the Pillow Princess is the submissive sexual partner, and therefore takes on the ‘female’ role – i.e. underneath. Society equates femininity with weakness, and so on.
SAYSBIAN
Someone who claims to be a lesbian or bisexual, but who actually only sleeps with/dates men.
SOFT BUTCH
Someone who presents mostly masculine, but has some feminine traits. Similar chapstick lesbian.
SPORTY DYKE
Pretty self explanatory. A lesbian who dresses in sporty clothing and plays a lot of sport.
STEM
A lesbian somewhere between stud and femme – so, stem. Might also identify as a chapstick lesbian.
STONE BUTCH
A queer woman who presents extremely masculine.
STUD
A dominant queer woman who is usually butch.
SWITCH
Someone who is a top and a bottom in the bedroom – so she switches between being dominant and submissive.
TOP
Someone who is dominant in bed.
TRYSEXUAL
Someone who will try anything once.
U-HAUL
When lesbians invest in a relationship very quickly. For example, lesbians move in together after three days of dating, cats in tow.
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