Guide

Weed slang glossary: 60 cannabis terms explained

Cannabis slang changes by region and decade, but most terms fall into five groups: amounts (zip, QP, dub), quality (zaza, exotic, gas, loud), consumption (toke, hotbox), the plant (pheno, nug) and products (kief, shatter). This glossary explains 60 of them in plain language, with metric conversions where a term is a weight.

A notebook of cannabis slang terms like bud, gas, za and loud beside a jar of buds, titled Weed slang glossary

6 min read · Updated September 26, 2026 · WeedDB editors

Cannabis slang is a moving target: the same word can mean different things in Vancouver, Toronto and Texas, and new terms arrive faster than old ones leave. This glossary sorts 60 common terms by theme and explains each one plainly. Where a term is a weight, you get the metric number first, and where the meaning is fuzzy, we say so.

What do weed amounts like zip, QP and dub mean?

A zip is an ounce, about 28 g, and a QP is a quarter pound, about 113 g. Both come from the imperial system, which is why the numbers look odd in metric. Canadian legal retail sells in grams, and the Cannabis Act caps public possession at 30 g of dried cannabis, so a zip is just under the limit.

Money-based terms are looser. Nobody can tell you exactly what a dime or a dub weighs, because the amount depended on the era, the place and the seller. For the full conversion chart, see our guide to weed measurements.

Gram: the basic metric unit, 1 g, and the smallest amount most legal stores sell.
Nickel: a five-dollar bag. The weight varied by place and decade, so treat it as a small amount, not a fixed one.
Dime: a ten-dollar bag. Same caveat as a nickel.
Dub: a twenty-dollar bag. Again, the weight has no fixed value.
Eighth: 3.5 g, one eighth of an ounce, the most common retail size.
Quarter: 7 g, a quarter of an ounce.
Half: 14 g, half an ounce.
O: short for ounce, about 28 g.
Zip: an ounce, about 28 g. The name is usually said to come from the zip-top bag it was sold in.
QP: a quarter pound, 4 ounces or about 113 g.
Pound: 16 ounces, about 454 g. Often called a P or a lb.
Kilo: 1,000 g, about 2.2 pounds. Usually a wholesale or illicit-market quantity, not a retail one.

Slang	Meaning	Metric
Eighth	1/8 of an ounce	3.5 g
Quarter	1/4 of an ounce	7 g
Half	1/2 of an ounce	14 g
Zip / O	1 ounce	28 g
QP	1/4 of a pound (4 ounces)	113 g
Pound	16 ounces	454 g

Common amount slang and the weights behind it. Imperial ounces are converted to grams and rounded.

What does zaza mean, and what counts as exotic weed?

Zaza is slang for high-quality cannabis, and exotic is a close cousin: both mean flower the speaker thinks is a cut above average. Neither term has a legal or scientific definition. Where you see them on a menu, they are marketing, not a measurement.

The origin of "zaza" is unclear, and it spread mostly through music and social media. If you want something you can check, ignore the adjective and read the label: Total THC, terpene results and harvest date tell you far more than a word like "loud". Our guide to reading cannabis labels shows how.

Zaza: high-quality flower. Origin unclear, no fixed meaning.
Za: a short form of zaza.
Exotic: premium or imported-style flower. No regulatory meaning in Canada.
Loud: flower with a strong smell. Sometimes also used for strong effects, so context matters.
Gas: a pungent, fuel-like smell, used as a compliment for certain varieties.
Dank: pungent, sticky, well-kept flower. Originally meant damp or musty, then flipped to praise.
Fire: general praise for good flower.
Top shelf: the highest tier a seller offers, with price to match.
Chronic: an older term for high-grade flower, popular in the 1990s.
Kind: short for kind bud, an older word for good flower.
Sticky icky: flower so resinous it feels tacky to the touch.
Mids: mid-grade flower, decent but not premium.
Reggie: low-grade, compressed flower, usually seeds and stems included.
Schwag: poor-quality flower, dry, stemmy or faded.

What do toke, hotbox and couch-lock mean?

Consumption slang covers how people use cannabis and how they describe the result. A toke is a puff, a hotbox is smoking in a closed space until it fills with smoke, and couch-lock is slang for feeling heavy and unwilling to move. None of these terms measure anything, which is why they should not be treated as dosing advice.

The paper-wrapped terms are easy to mix up. A joint is cannabis alone, a spliff mixes in tobacco, and a blunt uses a tobacco leaf wrapper. Our guide to spliffs, joints and blunts covers the difference, including why tobacco changes the risk picture.

Toke: one inhalation of smoke or vapour.
Hit: the same thing, one inhalation.
Rip: a large hit, often from a bong.
Bowl: the cup of a pipe or bong where flower goes, also used for one pipe load. To pack a bowl is to fill it.
Blaze: to smoke cannabis, as in blaze up.
Hotbox: smoking in a small closed space, such as a car, so smoke builds up.
Puff puff pass: the etiquette of taking two puffs and passing the joint on.
Roach: the leftover end of a joint, often the filter or crutch.
Joint: cannabis rolled in paper.
Spliff: cannabis rolled with tobacco.
Blunt: cannabis rolled in a tobacco leaf or cigar wrap.
Couch-lock: a heavy, stay-put feeling, usually blamed on a variety or a high dose. It is a description, not a measured effect.
Munchies: increased appetite after using cannabis.
Greening out: feeling dizzy, pale or nauseated after taking too much. See greening out for what happens and what to do.

What do pheno, nug and cola mean on the plant?

A pheno is short for phenotype: one plant's physical and chemical expression of its genes. Two seeds from the same strain can grow into different phenos, which is why the same strain name can smell and test differently from batch to batch. The full explanation is in our guide to phenotype meaning.

Most plant slang is anatomy. Terpenes, shortened to terps, are the aroma compounds, and trichomes are the resin glands that hold them. For how the resin gets collected, see kief and trichomes.

Pheno: short for phenotype, one plant's individual traits.
Strain: a named cannabis variety. The name is a label, and what is inside can vary.
Landrace: a variety that developed in one region over a long time without deliberate breeding.
Hybrid: a cross of two or more varieties. See indica vs sativa for why the old categories are shaky.
Bud: the dried flower of the female plant.
Nug: a single piece of dried bud.
Cola: the main, top flower cluster on a stem.
Trichomes: the tiny resin glands on the flower that hold cannabinoids and terpenes.
Pistils: the thin hairs on the flower, orange or brown when mature.
Terps: short for terpenes, aroma compounds such as myrcene and limonene.

What do kief, shatter and rosin mean for cannabis products?

Product slang names the form, not the quality: kief is loose resin powder, shatter is a glass-like concentrate and rosin is pressed without solvents. Concentrates are much stronger by weight than flower, so small amounts matter.

Edibles have a hard legal ceiling in Canada: the Cannabis Regulations limit THC to 10 mg per package for edibles. To compare concentrate types, see rosin, live resin and distillate.

Kief: loose trichome powder that collects when flower is ground.
Hash: compressed resin, an old form of concentrate.
Rosin: resin squeezed out with heat and pressure, no solvent.
Live resin: a solvent extract made from flower that was frozen fresh, to keep more aroma.
Shatter: a brittle, glassy concentrate.
Wax: a soft, crumbly concentrate, also called budder.
Distillate: a refined oil with most of the aroma stripped out, used in many vapes and edibles.
Edibles: food or drinks made with cannabis. Effects arrive later and last longer than smoking.
Cart: short for vape cartridge, a pre-filled oil cartridge. See vape pens explained.
Moon rocks: flower dipped in oil and rolled in kief. See moon rocks and infused pre-rolls.

Why does cannabis slang keep changing?

Slang exists because cannabis was illegal in most places for most of the last century, and code words were useful. Some old terms, like reefer, date back to the 1930s United States and now read as dated. New ones travel through music, social media and, more recently, product marketing.

Legalization added a second vocabulary: the formal, regulated one. Since the Cannabis Act came into force on October 17, 2018, Canadian labels use terms like Total THC and dried cannabis equivalent. When slang and the label disagree, trust the label.

Maui Wowie strain — Strains people look up most

Blue Dream strain — Strains people look up most

Sources: laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, canada.ca, en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org

Common questions

What does zaza mean?

Zaza is slang for high-quality cannabis flower. It has no legal or scientific definition, and its origin is unclear. Treat it as a seller's or speaker's opinion rather than a measurement, and check the label for actual numbers.

What is a QP in weed?

A QP is a quarter pound, which is 4 ounces or about 113 g. It is a large quantity, well over the 30 g of dried cannabis an adult may legally carry in public in Canada.

How much is a zip?

A zip is one ounce, about 28 g. In Canada the public possession limit is 30 g of dried cannabis, so one zip fits under the limit.

What is exotic weed?

Exotic is slang for premium flower, often with unusual genetics or a strong aroma. It has no regulatory meaning in Canada, so a product labelled exotic is not tested or graded differently from any other.

What does gas mean in weed?

Gas describes a sharp, fuel-like smell and is used as praise for certain varieties. It is a description of aroma, not a statement about strength.

What is the difference between a pheno and a strain?

A strain is the name of a variety. A pheno, short for phenotype, is one individual plant's traits, so several phenos can grow from the same strain and differ in smell, look and chemistry.

What does couch-lock mean?

Couch-lock is slang for feeling heavy and disinclined to move. It is a casual description rather than a measured effect, and how someone feels depends on the dose, the product and the person.

Keep reading

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The wrapper and the tobacco are what separate them, and both change what you are actually smoking.Vape pens explained: carts, 510 batteries and disposablesA cannabis vape pen is a battery that warms a cartridge of cannabis extract so you inhale vapour instead of smoke. The main types are 510 cartridges on a separate battery, all-in-one disposables, pod systems and dry-herb vaporizers, and the main thing that decides what fits what is the thread or pod design.Weed measurements: grams, eighths, ounces and the 30 g limitAn ounce of weed is 28 grams in everyday use (the exact figure is 28.35 g). An eighth is 3.5 g, a quarter is 7 g and a half is 14 g. In Canada, an adult can carry up to 30 g of dried cannabis in public, and other forms count against that limit by an equivalency schedule in the Cannabis Act.Moon rocks and infused pre-rolls: what they areMoon rocks are cannabis buds coated in cannabis oil or distillate and rolled in kief. Infused pre-rolls are joints with concentrate or kief added to the flower. In Canada, Health Canada treats a pre-roll fortified with kief as a cannabis extract product, and those products need Total THC on the label.What is greening out? Signs and what to doGreening out is a slang term for taking more cannabis than your body handles comfortably, usually with a wave of unpleasant physical and mental effects. It is generally temporary. The usual advice is to stop consuming, get somewhere calm, and call for help if symptoms are severe.How long does a high last? Smoked, vaped and ediblesHealth Canada says that after smoking or vaping you could feel effects for 2 to 4 hours, and after eating or drinking cannabis for 4 to 8 hours. Edibles also start later: within 30 minutes to 2 hours, compared with seconds or minutes when inhaled.The cannabis leaf: fan leaves, sugar leaves and what the shape meansA cannabis leaf is palmately compound: several narrow, serrated leaflets fan out from one point, usually five to seven but anywhere from three to nine or more. Big fan leaves do the photosynthesis, small sugar leaves sit inside the bud, and leaf shape alone does not reliably tell you whether a strain is an indica or a sativa.Kief and trichomes: what they are and what to do with kiefTrichomes are the tiny resin glands on cannabis flower that hold most of its cannabinoids and terpenes, and kief is the powder of trichomes that falls off the flower, often collecting at the bottom of a grinder. Pressed together, kief becomes hash. Both are concentrated, so Health Canada advises new or occasional users to avoid them.What does 4/20 mean? The real origin story4/20 (or 420) is cannabis culture's shorthand for 4:20 p.m. and for April 20. The best-documented origin is a group of San Rafael, California high school students called the Waldos, who used it as a meeting time in 1971. The police-code and chemical-count stories are myths.What does pheno mean? Phenotypes, cuts and why one strain name can mean different plants"Pheno" is short for phenotype: the physical and chemical traits a plant actually shows, such as its smell, structure and cannabinoid levels. Two seeds from the same cross can grow into different phenotypes, which is why one strain name can cover several different plants.What does weed smell like? Aromas and terpenesWeed smells earthy, sweet, citrusy or piney, and often a bit skunky. Across 1,756 strain guides on WeedDB, sweet and earthy are the most common aromas, and the lead terpenes are usually caryophyllene, myrcene and limonene.How to decarb weed (and why THCA needs heat)Decarbing (decarboxylation) is gently heating cannabis so the THCA it contains turns into THC. Lab studies show the change starts around 90 °C and speeds up sharply as temperature rises, but too much heat or time then starts to destroy THC, so it's a balance. Raw weed isn't intoxicating because it's mostly THCA.Does weed expire? Shelf life, storage and the packaged dateWeed doesn't spoil on a fixed date, but it does change. Over time THC slowly breaks down into CBN, and flower that's stored damp can grow mould. Canadian dried cannabis labels show a packaged date rather than an expiry date, while edibles may carry a best-before date.How to roll a joint: a step-by-step guideTo roll a joint, grind the flower, make a small filter, lay the filter and the ground cannabis in a rolling paper, shape it into a tube, tuck the paper, lick the gummed edge and seal it. Once you have the motion, it takes under a minute.What is hash? How it's made and how it differs from kief and rosinHash, short for hashish, is a cannabis concentrate made by collecting the resin glands (trichomes) from the plant and pressing or gathering them into a solid. It is made without chemical solvents, and in Canada it is sold as a cannabis extract under the Cannabis Regulations.What is shatter? How it's made and how it differs from wax and live resinShatter is a glassy, translucent cannabis concentrate made by dissolving resin out of the plant with butane and then removing the solvent. It is sold in Canada as a cannabis extract, with a cap of 1,000 mg of THC per container.How long do edibles take to kick in?Health Canada says edibles can take 30 minutes to 2 hours to start working, with the strongest effects 2 to 4 hours in and effects lasting 4 to 8 hours. The wait is why the standard advice is to start low, go slow and not take more too early.How to make cannabutter at homeCannabutter is butter gently simmered with decarbed cannabis, then strained and chilled. The steps are simple, but the strength of a homemade batch is uneven and can't be known without lab testing, so any dose is a guess and the advice is to start very low.What is kush? Why it's called kush, and the Kush strainsKush is named after the Hindu Kush, the mountain range along the Afghanistan and Pakistan border where the landrace indica plants behind the name come from. Today the word is also casual slang for good weed in general, and the Kush family covers every strain on WeedDB that carries the name.Runtz strains: origin, lineage, and every Runtz variantRuntz is a candy-sweet hybrid reported to be a cross of Zkittlez and Gelato. It became one of the most copied strain names of the late 2010s, so the Runtz family now includes dozens of crosses and flavour-named variants.Gelato strains: Gelato 33, 41, 45 and the whole familyGelato is a hybrid reported to be a cross of Sunset Sherbet and Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies, bred in the San Francisco Bay Area. The numbers in names like Gelato 33, 41 and 45 refer to different phenotypes, or selections, from the same cross.Purple weed: why some cannabis turns purplePurple cannabis gets its colour from anthocyanins, the same family of pigments that colour blueberries and red cabbage. Genetics decide whether a plant can make them, cool nights and late flowering let them show, and the colour says nothing reliable about strength.THC drinks in Canada: how cannabis beverages workCannabis beverages have been legal in Canada since October 2019, and each container can hold no more than 10 mg of THC. They are classed as edibles, so they act slowly: Health Canada says effects can start 30 minutes to 2 hours after drinking.What is exotic weed? What the word means (and doesn't)"Exotic" is slang and marketing, not a legal or lab category. It usually points to rare, new or very good-looking flower, but in Canada the word has no official definition, so the label, the packaged date and your own eyes and nose tell you more than the word does.Male vs female weed plants: how to tell them apartFemale cannabis plants grow pistils and form the resinous buds people smoke, while males grow small pollen sacs and produce no usable flower. You can tell them apart when the plant shows its pre-flowers, usually a few weeks into growth, and growers remove males to get seedless buds.How to use a weed grinder (and clean it)A grinder breaks dried flower into small, even pieces by twisting two toothed halves against each other. Load the buds, close the lid, twist back and forth, then open it to collect the ground flower, and wipe or soak it clean every so often so resin doesn't gum up the teeth.Autoflower strains: what they are and how they differAutoflowering cannabis switches from growing to flowering based on the plant's age, not on a change in daylight, because it carries genetics from Cannabis ruderalis. It stays smaller and finishes faster than a photoperiod plant, which usually means a smaller harvest.Growing weed in Canada: the 4-plant rule by provinceThe federal Cannabis Act lets adults grow up to four cannabis plants per residence for personal use, but each province sets its own extra rules. Quebec bans home growing outright, and Manitoba only allowed it, indoors, from May 1, 2025. Seeds and plants must come from a legal source.Can you fly with weed in Canada? Domestic flights and the borderYes on domestic flights, no across any border. CATSA allows cannabis in carry-on and checked bags on flights within Canada, and the 30 g public possession limit still applies. Taking cannabis out of Canada, even to a U.S. state where it is legal, is illegal.Weed seeds in Canada: is it legal to buy them?Yes. Adults can legally buy cannabis seeds in Canada from federally licensed sellers and provincially authorized retailers. Seeds count toward your possession limit: one seed equals 1 g of dried cannabis under Schedule 3 of the Cannabis Act, so 30 seeds is the public maximum.How much is a gram of weed in Canada?There is no single price. Statistics Canada's last published quarterly figures, from 2019, put legal dried cannabis at about $10.65 a gram and illegal at about $5.93. More recent data shows recreational cannabis prices fell 1.1% between March 2024 and March 2025, but no current per-gram average is published.Highest THC strains: what the numbers really meanThe highest THC strains are the ones with the biggest Total THC number on a lab report, but that number is a ceiling that varies by batch, lab and method. This guide explains how THC is measured and labelled in Canada, why very high figures are often inflated, and why a higher number isn't automatically a better choice.High-CBD strains: CBD-rich cannabis explainedHigh-CBD strains are cannabis varieties that test high in CBD (cannabidiol) and often low in THC. In Canada, CBD products are regulated as cannabis under the Cannabis Act, and labels show Total CBD and Total THC so you can read the ratio.What is a dab? Dabbing, rigs and concentrates explainedA dab is a small amount of cannabis concentrate that is heated on a hot surface and inhaled as vapour. Concentrates are far more potent than flower, so the main safety points are burns, heat, and starting with a very small amount.Cookies strains: Girl Scout Cookies and its familyCookies strains are the cannabis family built around Girl Scout Cookies, widely reported as a cross of OG Kush and Durban Poison from the San Francisco Bay Area. Cuts like Thin Mints and Forum Cut, and descendants like Gelato, Sunset Sherbet and Wedding Cake, make up the family.Haze strains: the classic sativa familyHaze strains are a family of cannabis varieties descended from the original Haze, a long-flowering sativa blend reported to come from California in the 1960s and 70s. Super Silver Haze, Amnesia, Lemon Haze and Purple Haze are among the best-known descendants.Diesel strains: Sour Diesel, NYC Diesel and the gas familyDiesel strains are the cannabis family known for a sharp fuel smell, built around Sour Diesel and NYC Diesel. Their roots are reported to lead back to Chemdawg, though the origin of Sour Diesel itself is disputed.Minor cannabinoids: CBG, CBN, CBC, THCV and THCA explainedMinor cannabinoids are the cannabinoids in cannabis other than THC and CBD, called minor because of how little a typical plant makes, not how strong they are. In Canada they all fall under the Cannabis Act, Health Canada names CBN and THCV as intoxicating, and labels only have to show THC and CBD.Cannabis oil, tinctures and RSO: what's the difference?A tincture is a liquid cannabis extract dosed with a dropper, cannabis oil is a loose market term with no legal class in Canada, and RSO is a thick, dark whole-plant extract sold in a syringe. In Canadian law a tincture is an ingested extract, which changes the limits that apply to it.Pre-rolls explained: what's inside, sizes, and infused pre-rolls in CanadaA pre-roll is a joint rolled and sealed by the producer: ground cannabis in a paper cone, usually with a cardboard crutch, sold in a tube or multi-pack. Sizes commonly run from about 0.3 g to 1 g. In Canada, Health Canada treats an infused pre-roll as a cannabis extract product, not dried cannabis.TerpenesWhat each terpene smells like and which strains it shows up in.