YOLO stands for you only live once. People use it to justify a spontaneous or risky decision: a last-minute trip, an expensive purchase, a skydive. It's written on social media and in texting, usually as a joke.
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plan/decision + yolo; yolo, + let's…; I thought, yolo
- Booked a last-minute flight to Rome for the weekend, yolo!
- I've never tried skydiving, but my friends are going, so yolo.
- yolo, let's order dessert, the diet can start on Monday.
What changed
First versionLet's book the trip to Iceland, we live one time!
RevisionLet's book the trip to Iceland, you only live once!
We live one time sounds like a clumsy word-for-word version of the idea. English has a set phrase, you only live once, where you means any of us and once means one time. Yolo is its abbreviation.
YOLO sounds flippant and suits a photo caption: Spent my whole salary on concert tickets, yolo. To say the same thing seriously, for example in IELTS Speaking, people use life is too short: Life is too short to stay in a job you hate. Yolo isn't used in essays or work emails.
Your turn
I'd never jumped into the sea from a cliff before, but the water looked amazing, so I thought ___ and jumped.
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yolo — You decided on a risky jump yourself, just because you felt like it, which is yolo, you only live once. FOMO is the fear of missing what others are doing, and there's no mention of other people here.
Write a caption for a post about a spontaneous decision. Say what you did and why you hadn't dared to do it before, and end the caption with yolo.
Dyed my hair bright blue after years of worrying what my boss would think, yolo!
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