crossover
/ˈkrɒsˌoʊvər/
Very CommonA story, piece of art, or creative work that combines characters or elements from two or more separate fictional universes.
Used in both official media and fan creation. In fan communities, crossovers are a major genre of fan fiction and fan art. Also used loosely in real life for any unexpected combination of two separate things or communities.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | someone wrote a good souls x dragon age crossover and now i have to read 300k words | Reluctantly committing to a long fan fiction because the concept is too appealing to ignore. | tumblr, 2024 |
| 02 | this is the crossover nobody asked for but somehow everyone needed | An unexpected combination of two separate things turned out to be genuinely good. | x, 2023 |
| 03 | the minecraft x pokemon crossover mod is exactly what i needed in my life | Expressing enthusiasm about a fan-made combination of two beloved games. | reddit, 2024 |
| 04 | ok the irl crossover of cottagecore people and metalheads is a real subculture and i'm obsessed | Using crossover to describe the merging of two real-world aesthetics or communities. | tiktok, 2023 |
Use it when
- A story or piece of art combines characters from two separate fictional universes.
- An official media property features characters or elements from another franchise.
- Two fan communities or cultural things unexpectedly overlap.
- Describing fan fiction that pairs characters from different source materials.
Do not use it when
- Characters are from the same franchise or universe, just different entries in the series.
Variations and related forms
Origin and context
Established term in both official publishing and fan communities, used in comics since at least the 1980s for stories combining characters from different series. Became standard fan fiction vocabulary on early forums and Fanfiction.net.
- First seen
- 1980s
- Confidence
- medium
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/crossoverUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0