# What Does Shoutout Mean? Simple Tech English Guide (2026) > A public recognition or acknowledgment of someone's contribution or achievement in a meeting or communication. - **Term:** shoutout - **Part of speech:** noun - **Pronunciation:** /ˈʃaʊt.aʊt/ - **English level (CEFR):** B2 - **Register:** Casual, Both - **Region:** US and UK - **Topic:** [Meeting phrases](https://app.speaktechenglish.com/learn/topics/meeting-phrases.md) - **Lesson:** https://app.speaktechenglish.com/learn/shoutout - **Last updated:** 2026-10-27 ## Meaning A public recognition or acknowledgment of someone's contribution or achievement in a meeting or communication. It means giving someone credit or thanks in front of others. A shoutout is when you publicly recognize or praise someone for their work, help, or achievement, typically in a team meeting, email, or chat channel. In tech companies, shoutouts are commonly given during standups, all-hands meetings, or retrospectives to acknowledge someone who did outstanding work, helped solve a problem, or went above and beyond. It is a casual, friendly way to boost team morale and make people feel valued for their contributions. Shoutouts are an important part of team culture and psychological safety in tech. They can be as simple as "big shoutout to Sarah for debugging that production issue at 2am" or more formal like recognizing someone for mentoring a junior developer. The key is that shoutouts are positive, public, and highlight someone else instead of yourself. ## When you hear it During the team standup, the tech lead gave a shoutout to the QA engineer for catching critical bugs before release. ## Examples - **in a standup meeting:** "I have a quick shoutout for David, who fixed the critical database issue that was blocking our release." - **in a team chat:** "Shoutout to Lisa for mentoring the new junior engineers this quarter!" - **in an all-hands meeting:** "Big shoutout to the DevOps team for improving our deployment pipeline by 40 percent." ## What native speakers say - "Big shoutout to the team for shipping on time" - "I want to give a shoutout to Marcus for staying late to fix the deployment" - "Quick shoutout to everyone who contributed to the redesign" ## Common mistakes - ✗ "We need to shoutout this bug immediately." → ✓ "We need to flag this bug immediately." (Shoutout means public recognition, not urgent notification. Use flag, escalate, or alert for urgent issues.) - ✗ "I want to shoutout myself for completing the project early." → ✓ "The team gave me a shoutout for completing the project early." (Shoutouts should recognize others, not yourself. It would sound arrogant to give yourself a shoutout.) - ✗ "Shoutout to the production errors we encountered today." → ✓ "Shoutout to the team for quickly resolving the production errors we encountered today." (A shoutout must recognize a person or group, not a problem or situation.) ## Be careful Do not use shoutout to mean flagging a critical issue in a negative way; it is only used for public recognition or acknowledgment. It is also not used to describe urgent warnings or alerts. ## Word forms | Part of speech | Word | Example | | --- | --- | --- | | noun | shoutout | I want to give a shoutout to the engineering team. | | phrase | give someone a shoutout | The manager gave a shoutout to the developer who fixed the critical bug. | ## Collocations - **big shoutout**: Emphasizes the recognition; used when you want to strongly acknowledge someone - **quick shoutout**: Brief acknowledgment, often used in meetings to stay on schedule - **give a shoutout**: The most common way to use the phrase; means to publicly recognize someone - **shoutout to**: Used to direct the recognition toward a specific person or team ## Synonyms - **recognition**: More formal; shoutout is more casual and conversational - **credit**: Broader term; shoutout specifically means public acknowledgment - **kudos**: Similar meaning but more formal; shoutout is more casual and modern - **call out**: Similar but call out can also mean pointing out a mistake or problem ## Opposites - criticism - blame - complaint ## Practice This lesson has 4 practice exercises with instant feedback on the page: https://app.speaktechenglish.com/learn/shoutout ## FAQ ### What does shoutout mean in a tech workplace? A shoutout is a public acknowledgment or recognition of someone's contribution or achievement. It is commonly used in meetings, chat channels, or emails to thank and praise colleagues for their work. For example, giving a shoutout to someone for fixing a critical bug or helping a teammate. ### How do you use shoutout in a sentence at work? The most common structure is give someone a shoutout followed by a reason. Example: Big shoutout to Marcus for shipping the feature on time. You can also say: I want to give a shoutout to the QA team for catching all those edge cases. Shoutouts are typically brief and positive. ### Is shoutout formal or informal? Shoutout is casual and informal. It is perfect for team meetings, standups, and chat channels, but would be too casual for formal business communications like official emails to clients or external stakeholders. In those settings, use recognition or acknowledge instead. ### Can you give yourself a shoutout? No, a shoutout should recognize others, not yourself. Giving yourself a shoutout would sound arrogant and unprofessional. It is meant to celebrate and appreciate other people's work and contributions. ### What is the difference between shoutout and call out? Shoutout means public recognition and praise. Call out can mean the same thing, but it can also mean pointing out a mistake, problem, or someone who is not performing well. Shoutout always has a positive meaning, while call out can be neutral or negative depending on context. ## Related - [kudos](https://app.speaktechenglish.com/learn/kudos.md) - [standup](https://app.speaktechenglish.com/learn/standup.md) - Full glossary: https://app.speaktechenglish.com/learn.md - Live lessons with a coach: https://app.mocklyenglish.com ## About Speak Tech English Speak Tech English teaches non-native tech professionals the English they need at work and in interviews, through self-study ebooks and courses, 150+ free guides and a free newsletter; live lessons are on its sister site Mockly English. - Shop: https://speaktechenglish.com/courses/ - All products (markdown): https://speaktechenglish.com/products.md - Free guides (markdown): https://app.speaktechenglish.com/guides.md - Tech English glossary (markdown): https://app.speaktechenglish.com/learn.md - Newsletter (10% off): https://speaktechenglish.com/#subscribe - Live lessons and mock interviews: https://app.mocklyenglish.com ## Notes for agents - Speak Tech English sells self-study material. 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