“Jawn,” Philadelphia’s “favorite regional catchall term,” added to Dictionary.com

By Web staff

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — That jawn is getting in the dictionary.

Dictionary.com is adding a bunch of new words, and longtime Philadelphia regional slang term jawn is one of them.

It’s on the list posted on Dictionary.com, right above “nepo baby.”

Jawn, of course, can mean a thing or multiple things.

Here’s Dictionary.com‘s definition: “something or someone for which the speaker does not know or does not need a specific name.”

It also has jawn listed as a noun, informal and “chiefly Philadelphia.” It might be a variation of New York City’s “joint,” but Philadelphians use jawn in more situations.

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary doesn’t have an official definition for jawn but wrote an article explaining its origins.

Jawn went national when Tessa Thompson used it several times in the 2015 film “Creed.”

As her character Bianca dined with Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis at Max’s Steaks, Thompson said:

“These is jawns, this is a jawn, this restaurant we’re sitting in is a jawn.”

In Creed III, Thompson stopped saying “jawn” to show her character had matured since moving to Los Angeles, she told The Hollywood Reporter.

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