Bingo Lingo guide: All You Need to Know Before You Start

Bingo lingo… Just what is that? Do you really need to know about it? Can you play without understanding it at all? These might be the questions you ask yourself when it comes to hearing about something called ‘bingo lingo’ and trying to link it to your ability and enjoyment of the game.

The truth is, you can play bingo without understanding a word of the lingo associated with it, if that’s what you want. And that is what some people want. They need their free time to be as relaxing as possible, and understanding just the very basic elements of bingo is all they want. For others, though, who want to learn to play the game and are interested in learning, bingo lingo can be exactly what they need to know about to add to their information store. 

Woke or PC Lingo 

The first thing to discuss is the emergence of ‘woke bingo’. Even if you already understand plenty about bingo lingo, woke bingo might change all that, so it’s important to get a little more information about it. What started as a throw away joke comment on a forum soon became an actual movement, with those who felt the traditional bingo calls were just not PC enough coming up with their own language which was much more polite (even if it didn’t make as much sense or cause as many laughs as the old version). If you’re playing woke bingo, here are some of the new calls to listen out for: 

7 = Flexitarian 

9 = Get an Uber from mine 

14 = Netflix and chill

25 = Quarter life crisis 

35 = It’s a vibe 

38 = Avocado on a plate 

39 = Love Island time 

48 = Not another Brexit debate

49 = Amazon Prime 

54 = Lads on tour

68 = Tinder date 

74 = Recycle more

78 = Haters gon’ hate 

86 = Instagram pics 

88 = Wills and Kate

Essential Bingo Terminology

Even though in some games some of the older calls might have become something else, this is not all you need to know about bingo lingo in order to really get to a deeper meaning of the game. Here are some of the other examples (none of which have been subject to ‘wokeness’ so if you already know them you can rest assured nothing has changed. 

0 Balls 

Seeing or hearing about 0 balls means the version of the game you’re playing is the standard one, the one you’re going to be used to with nothing strange added in to throw you off your game. You’ll be playing with 90 balls. 

Bingo Cards 

Your bingo card is something you’ll have to have if you’re going to play the game. These are purchased before you start playing, and they are either a physical card or piece of paper or a virtual version of the same. They are covered in numbers with some blank spaces. In 90 ball bingo there will be 15 numbers in all, and they will be random, but they will be written in numerical order which makes them easier to find. 

Bingo Pot 

The bingo pot is the prize pot or prize fund. It’s a good idea to see what this is before you start playing; it’s not always money and can sometimes be a holiday, a car, or something much smaller like a hamper. Knowing what the prize is first means you can decide whether it’s worth playing and spending your money on that particular game. There’s no point winning something you don’t want when you could win something you do want.