Boujee means fancy, luxurious or a little extravagant. Dictionary.com calls it hip-hop slang for something 'luxurious in lifestyle yet humble in character', and says it's often used interchangeably with bougie. Merriam-Webster lists boujee as a variant of bougie and notes the slang sense 'fancy, swanky'. Both words go back to the French bourgeoisie.
Boujee is the word for a fancy oat-milk coffee, a hotel robe you'd like to steal and the friend who brings a cheese board to a picnic. It can be a compliment or a dig, and it's tangled up with a much older word, bougie. Here's what boujee means, how the two spellings differ and the surprising places the word has turned up.
Boujee as a compliment and as a dig
Dictionary.com says boujee is used in Black slang to describe someone who has made their own wealth out of a poorer upbringing, likes a lavish lifestyle, but is still connected to their roots. That's the positive, admiring sense: you enjoy nice things, but you haven't forgotten where you came from.
It also says that because the spelling and sound are so close to bougie, boujee often gets swapped with it, and among some users boujee can describe someone or something as too flashy or showy. So 'that's so boujee' about a brunch spot might be praise, or a gentle eye-roll. Tone and emoji usually tell you which.
- 'Room service and a bath bomb, feeling boujee tonight.' Treating yourself.
- 'She's boujee but she'll still eat at the chippy with us.' The original admiring sense.
- 'A gold-plated phone case? That's a bit boujee.' Too much.
Boujee vs bougie: the difference
Dictionary.com explains that bougie and boujee are similar terms with subtle but significant differences. Bougie is the older, more general slang. It says bougie insults someone leading a boring middle-class life who aspires to something wealthier and more sophisticated, especially in their consumer choices. Boujee, in its original sense, is more about earned luxury and staying humble.
| Bougie | Boujee | |
|---|---|---|
| Roots | Shortened from bourgeois | Respelling of bougie |
| Classic tone | Mocking: pretentious, suburban | Admiring: lavish but grounded |
| When it spread | By the 1970s, per Dictionary.com | From 2016, per Dictionary.com |
| Dictionary status | Merriam-Webster headword | Listed as a less common variant |
Merriam-Webster treats them as one word: its entry is bougie, with boujee and bourgie as variants, meaning marked by a concern for wealth, possessions and respectability. It labels it informal and usually disparaging. It even gives the comparative forms bougier, boujier and bourgier.
From French merchants to 1970s slang
Dictionary.com traces both words to the 16th-century French term bourgeoisie, literally 'the burghers', the emerging merchant class whose new wealth gave them social status. Over the centuries, it says, bourgeoisie and bourgeois came to stand for 'middle class', and by the late 18th century the term was used to disparage someone as materialistic, conventional and complacent.
By the 1970s, according to Dictionary.com, bourgeois had been shortened in slang to bougie, mocking things as consumeristic, pretentious and suburban. Merriam-Webster dates the adjective bougie to 1968. It quotes the writer Colson Whitehead saying of a place he stopped visiting that 'it was too bourgie'.
Migos and the 2016 spelling
The spelling boujee arrived with a hit. Dictionary.com says the 2016 song 'Bad and Boujee' by the hip-hop trio Migos introduced a new take on, and spelling of, bougie. It explains the song suggests the singer's love interest is materially successful but still down to earth, and that the video showed women enjoying luxury, like designer clothes, without airs, eating at their old neighbourhood restaurant.
Dictionary.com says the song spent eight weeks at the top of the Billboard chart, which goes a long way to explaining why boujee became the spelling most people now use online.
How to say boujee
Merriam-Webster gives slightly different pronunciations for the spellings. Bougie is said with a soft 'zh' sound in the middle, like the s in measure: boo-zhee. Boujee is usually said with a harder j: boo-jee. In everyday speech the two blur together, which is one reason people mix up the spellings. Bourgie, the third variant, keeps the r from bourgeois.
Parents and teachers who want to follow what young people type can start with our guide to face card.
A word to be thoughtful with
Dictionary.com adds a note worth taking seriously. It says boujee can connote a distinctly Black American socioeconomic experience, and that using it outside that community may be considered a form of cultural appropriation. That doesn't mean nobody else can ever say it, but it's worth knowing the word's history before you make it your brand voice. It sits alongside other Black slang that crossed into the mainstream, like slay and bussin.
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Other bougies and boujees
Two unrelated words share the spelling. Merriam-Webster lists a separate noun bougie meaning a wax candle, and a medical instrument, from French, after Bougie, a seaport in Algeria. Neither has anything to do with the slang, which comes from bourgeois.
And Wiktionary records a completely different boujee in Guyanese Creole English, meaning sister-in-law, specifically a brother's wife. It comes from Caribbean Hindustani, from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri words bhaujai and bhauji. So in Georgetown, calling someone your boujee might be about family, not fashion.
Once you have this one down, the ate meaning page is a useful follow-up.
Should a brand call itself boujee?
It can work for treat-yourself products: candles, skincare, hotels, cocktail bars. Merriam-Webster quotes Condé Nast Traveler in January 2026 describing a hotel vibe as 'bougie Bedouin meets Zen Master', so even travel writers use it. The risks are the two I've covered: it can sound like a dig at your own customers, and it carries cultural weight. If you use it, make sure it's affectionate and fits how your audience already talks. And if you're describing something as simply excellent, goated is a different compliment altogether.
Related: the hotel page.
Frequently asked questions
What does boujee mean?
It means fancy, luxurious or a little extravagant, often in a treat-yourself way.
What's the difference between boujee and bougie?
Dictionary.com says bougie mocks pretentious middle-class taste, while boujee originally meant luxurious but humble.
Where does boujee come from?
Dictionary.com says the spelling came from the 2016 Migos song 'Bad and Boujee', a respelling of bougie.
Is boujee a compliment?
It can be. It's admiring in its original sense but can also mean too flashy, depending on tone.
What does bougie mean in French?
Merriam-Webster lists bougie as a wax candle, after Bougie, a seaport in Algeria.
What does boujee mean in Guyana?
Wiktionary says boujee means sister-in-law, a brother's wife, in Guyanese Creole English.
