What Does Dank Mean? Ganja, Greens And Other Marijuana Nicknames To Know

What is dank? — A man smokes marijuana during a global March for marijuana in Medellin, Colombia on May 7, 2016. REUTERS

More than half of the United States allow legal use of marijuana in some capacity. In fact, a lawmaker even introduced a bill Feb. 27 that would make marijuana federally legal if passed into legislation.

As more states consider legalizing medical and/or recreational use, cannabis vernacular will most likely become increasingly common across the nation. While there are some age-old names used to describe marijuana that just about everyone’s familiar with – pot, Mary Jane, weed – there are a slew of other cannabis nicknames people use when referencing the plant.

Names for marijuana can differentiate depending on a location – in Jamaica, it’s often called “ganja” while South Africans will usually refer to weed as “dagga” – and the age group of users.

Terms to describe marijuana can also be heavily influenced by musicians. Long before singers and rappers — like Wiz Khalifa who made a song called “Good Dank” or Master P’s famous “1/2 On a Bag Of Dank” — included the word, stoners and hippies were using “dank” in reference to high quality and very potent marijuana, contrary to its Miriam-Webster dictionary meaning of damp, musty and typically cold.