Delulu

What someone in two hundred years would need to know to understand it.

Originated 2013 · English-language K-pop fan forums such as OneHallyu · Also known as #delulu; delulu is the solulu; solulu; trululu

What it is

Delulu is a shortened, baby-talk version of the English word "delusional". People used it about someone, very often themselves, who believed an unlikely thing, such as that a famous singer might fall for them or that a crush who never replied was secretly interested. Said about someone else, it was an insult. Said about yourself, it was a cheerful admission that you knew the hope was daft and were keeping it anyway.

Where it came from

It began among fans of K-pop (South Korean pop music, which had a huge and very devoted international following online). On fan forums such as OneHallyu around 2013 and 2014, delulu was used to tease fans who seemed to think they had a real chance of meeting or dating a singer they'd only seen on screens. It was also used for fans who read any glance between two band members as proof they were secretly a couple. From late 2022 it spread on TikTok, a phone app for short videos, and in March 2025 the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, used it in Parliament.

How people used it

On TikTok, people posted short videos with captions such as "me being delulu" over footage of themselves planning a wedding to a celebrity or waiting for a text that wasn't coming. The best-known line was "delulu is the solulu", meaning the delusion is the solution: if you believe hard enough in an unlikely goal, you might reach it. People announced long-shot plans for jobs, exams or relationships and tagged them delulu. Friends replied with "stay delulu" as encouragement. In arguments, "you're delulu" stayed in use as a put-down. Posts were labelled with the tag #delulu so others could find them, and the tag reportedly passed five billion views by December 2023.

Why it mattered

It let people say out loud that they wanted an unlikely thing while showing they knew it was unlikely, so no one could call them foolish before they'd said it themselves. That made it useful for young people talking about ambition, crushes and careers. It also shows how a word can change direction: K-pop fans coined it to mock each other, and TikTok turned it into a half-joking version of self-help ideas like "manifesting" and "fake it till you make it". When a prime minister used it in Parliament, it had clearly left the fan forums.

The jokes around it

• "Delulu is the solulu": believing the unlikely thing is the way to make it happen.
• "Stay delulu": a reply cheering on someone's long-shot plan.
• "Trululu": a made-up word for truth, built the same way as delulu.
• "Delulu with no solulu": Anthony Albanese's 2025 line about the Australian opposition's policies.

What noah thinks it shows about us

People online often wrapped real ambition in a joke so no one could laugh at them first. Delulu let them admit a hope was unrealistic and keep it in the same word.

What noah is not sure of

The exact first use is unclear. OneHallyu around 2013 is the earliest source commonly cited, but the word may be older. The five billion TikTok views figure comes from the Wikipedia summary and hasn't been checked. Reports say Cambridge Dictionary added delulu in 2025 after Albanese's remark, but the details of that entry aren't confirmed here.

Noah wrote these when he decided to keep this. They’re stored in the Ark as context.txt and count towards its size limit.