Cringe Or Cringy? What’s The Difference?

Vocabulary / By

Internet slang is taking over the globe, and two more words have been added to the slang: cringe and cringy, but what’s the difference between them?

Cringe and cringy have the same meaning, but they’re used in different ways. Cringe means to experience disgust and or embarrassment from a person, place, or thing, but most commonly a person. The internet often calls videos or people cringe or cringy because the videos or people are embarrassing and or disgusting.

The rest of this article will cover what the difference between cringe and cringy is, and how to use them.

The Difference Between Cringe And Cringy

Cringe is a noun and verb used to describe an act of cringing. Cringy is an adjective used to describe a person or video that causes feelings of disgust or embarrassment. That’s the main difference between the two: one is a noun and verb, and the other is an adjective.

You should only be using cringe as a noun or verb, and cringy as an adjective. If you get confused, read the sentence out loud and ask yourself if cringe or cringy is being used as the topic of the sentence, the action of the sentence, or the describer of the sentence.

If it’s the topic or action, it should be cringe. If it’s describing something, it should be cringy.

How To Use Cringe And Cringy

Cringe is used as a noun or verb, so if you’re not describing something, you should use cringe. On the contrary, if you’re describing something, you should use cringy. For example, this video is cringy. Or, another example: you’re making me cringe.

In the second example, saying “you’re making me cringy” wouldn’t make sense since cringy isn’t describing anything. In this instance, it’s being used as a verb to state the action the “you” of the sentence is taking.

Another important thing to note is the spelling of cringy. It can be spelled as cringey, or cringy. Both are correct, but cringey is the more popular spelling. Cringey is a combination of the words ‘cringe’ and ‘worthy’, thus making it literally mean ‘cringe worthy’.

However, cringe is the only correct spelling of cringe. Cringe is a solid word to use in all types of writing, and in creative writing, it’s a good choice since it’s a powerful and unique word. Cringy is also a unique word to use, but be careful not to overuse it.

 

Conor
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