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Most Used Terms in RuPaul’s Drag Race Dictionary
Your Guide to the Big City
Your Guide to the Big City

Most Used Terms in RuPaul’s Drag Race Dictionary

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July 11, 2022

RuPaul’s Drag Race is one of the best TV shows ever made. It is a combination of comedy, drama, fashion, and entertainment. There is no dull moment and every scene screams glamour. The contestants vary from amateur to veteran drag queens. Some are only in the industry for only a few months while others have been doing drag their whole lives.

One noticeable element that colors the whole show is the terminologies used by the contestants and the Queen of Drag herself. There are common words that are spiced up when they say them. While there are phrases that are new to us.

Are you ready to see the top 10 fan-favorite lines from RuPaul’s Drag Race? Racers, start your engines, and may the best drag queen’s line, win!

Lip Sync for Your Life

This is a line all drag queen contestants are afraid to hear. Especially when it pertains to them. Lip Sync for your life means a contestant is in the bottom two of a challenge on the show. She must lip-sync a specific song against her opponent queen with everything there is about lip-syncing. One would go home and one would stay after the Queen of drag pick.

Eleganza, Extravaganza

Separately, these two adjectives describe luxurious, graceful, and other charismatic descriptions. Together, both means showing not only pure but also extra elegance on the runway. This is what RuPaul usually uses to describe what the contestants should look like – Eleganza, Extravaganza.

Shade

Shade or throwing shade is like criticizing or even insulting others behind their back. This is commonly used during the whole show. Queens love to throw shade at each other. This is where all the drama and confrontation started.

Con – DRAG – ulations

This simply means congratulations but with a spiced-up, drag queen taste. Contestants love to hear this especially when it is followed by “you are the winner of this week’s challenge.”

Cooking

Cooking is related to makeup and face painting. This is the resting time of the makeup on the face before blending it.

Ki Ki

This term has two definitions. First, it is a verb that means to gossip. The other one means drag queens having sexual intercourse. Specifically, when drag queens do it without removing their drag.

The Library (Read)

Opening the library means an activity where contestants read (openly criticize) each other in front of Ru. This became a seasonal mini-game and fans are loving it.

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Shantay, You Stay / Sashay, Away

After lip-syncing for their life, one will be chosen to stay in the competition and one will be sent home. Ru will tell the lip-sync winner to “shantay, you stay” and the loser to “sashay away”. In the entire show, RuPaul has been the only one to say these lines.

Werk

Werk is a fancier term for “work”. This term means to strut on the runway and own it. When queens walk on the runway and they have to flaunt their outfits, that is when they should “Werk it!”

Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent

These four adjectives are the goals of all contestants in the race. RuPaul constantly reminds the girls to incorporate these terms into everything they do in the competition. These are the possessed characteristics of the drag superstars who won the race.

RuPaul’s Drag Race has been one of the fan favorites. It is entertaining as a usual tv show while having a cause. It teaches us to accept diversity and inclusivity and to embrace who we are. Because as the Queen of Drag likes to say, “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?”

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Angelo has always been interested in photography and writing. He has been participating in various photography-related events since high school. Street photography is his most favorite type as he believes that this is where life is the most candid - where inequality, denigration, love, and hope coexist everyday. One day, he aspires to be an environmental photojournalist that does his part for a better world.

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