verbal diarrhea
/ˈvɜːrbəl ˌdaɪəˈrɪə/
CommonAn uncontrollable flood of words, usually embarrassing, overly personal, or completely off-topic.
More embarrassing than just yapping. Implies loss of control. Often used to describe saying too much in an awkward situation or oversharing without meaning to.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | i had verbal diarrhea on the first date and told him my entire life story | Nerves caused uncontrollable oversharing on a date. | tiktok, 2023 |
| 02 | whenever i get nervous i get verbal diarrhea and just keep talking | Anxiety triggers an involuntary flood of words. | reddit, 2023 |
| 03 | that was a verbal diarrhea moment, i should have just said no and moved on | I said too many extra things when a short answer would have been fine. | x, 2024 |
| 04 | his entire speech was verbal diarrhea, no structure just words | The speech was a stream of unfiltered, unorganized content. | reddit, 2023 |
Use it when
- Someone overshares personal information they didn't mean to reveal.
- Nervousness causes someone to ramble and say too much.
- Someone fills silence with an uncontrollable stream of words.
- You catch yourself having said way more than the situation called for.
Do not use it when
- Someone is just talking a lot but what they're saying is intentional.Use “yapping” instead.
- A group is all being noisy together.Use “yapfest” instead.
Verbal diarrhea vs yapping
verbal diarrhea
Verbal diarrhea implies involuntary oversharing or saying things you didn't mean to say.
VS
yapping
Yapping is about talking too much in general, not necessarily about loss of control.
Origin and context
A long-standing informal English expression predating internet slang. The comparison of talking too much to a medical symptom has been in use since at least the mid-20th century. Has persisted into internet slang use.
- First seen
- pre-2000s
- Confidence
- high
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/verbal-diarrheaUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0