Cray

What does cray mean?

Crazy

Cray describes something unbelievable, bizarre, or mind-blowingly amazing. You may hear or see the term in real life, online (especially on social media), and in messages.

For example, your friend may share how or she won 4 tickets to a cruise, and you reply, "OMG, that's crazy!! Please take me!!!!" Or, you may explain why you broke up with your girlfriend, "She started acting cray cray after I said I didn't want to move in together, so I eventually had to show her the door."

Origin of Cray

While many people believe "cray" is just an abbreviation of "crazy," it actually comes from Jay-Z's and Kanye West's 2011 song "N***as in Paris." In the song, the lyrics refer to the Kray twins (Ronald and Reginald), who were schizophrenic East End of London crime figures in the 1950s and 1960s.

Cray evolved out of that and gained popularity, especially in Black communities (classified as AAVE) in 2011. Soon, cray cray (or cray-cray) memes began popping up everywhere on social sites, and it grew into the greater public's lexicon in the following years.

Example

Did you see that game last night? That was so cray!
IKR?!? I screamed so loud when he hit that shot!
Popular cray cray meme
Popular cray cray meme

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Updated December 19, 2023

Cray definition by Slang.net

This page explains what the slang term "Cray" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slang.net team.

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