# The incel lexicon: Deciphering the emergent cryptolect of a global misogynistic community

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.12006 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.12006/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 May 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [The Pushshift Reddit Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.08435/) (2020)
- [Storywrangler: A massive exploratorium for sociolinguistic, cultural, socioeconomic, and political timelines using Twitter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.12988/) (2020)
- [Exploration of Gender Differences in COVID-19 Discourse on Reddit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.05713/) (2020)
- [Computational timeline reconstruction of the stories surrounding Trump: Story turbulence, narrative control, and collective chronopathy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.07301/) (2020)
- [The Evolution of the Manosphere Across the Web](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.07600/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Discovering Differences in the Representation of People using Contextualized Semantic Axes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.12170/) (2022)
- [Characterizing, Detecting, and Predicting Online Ban Evasion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.05257/) (2022)
- [Identity Construction in a Misogynist Incels Forum](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.15745/) (2023)
- [A Lexicon for Studying Radicalization in Incel Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07928/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Evolving out of a gender-neutral framing of an involuntary celibate identity, the concept of `incels' has come to refer to an online community of men who bear antipathy towards themselves, women, and society-at-large for their perceived inability to find and maintain sexual relationships. By exploring incel language use on Reddit, a global online message board, we contextualize the incel community's online expressions of misogyny and real-world acts of violence perpetrated against women. After assembling around three million comments from incel-themed Reddit channels, we analyze the temporal dynamics of a data driven rank ordering of the glossary of phrases belonging to an emergent incel lexicon. Our study reveals the generation and normalization of an extensive coded misogynist vocabulary in service of the group's identity.