Image: Wikimedia Commons

troll

Internet slang for someone who is deliberately inflammatory online

Also known as internet troll · online troll

Instance of: occupation
Subclass of: Internet user
, prankster

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

In slang, trolling is when a person posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online or performs similar behaviors offline. The methods and motivations of trolls can range from benign to sadistic. These messages can be inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic, and may have the intent of provoking others into displaying emotional responses, or manipulating others' perceptions, thus acting as a bully or a provocateur. The behavior is typically for the troll's amusement, or to achieve a specific result such as disrupting a rival's online activities or purposefully causing confusion or harm to other people. Trolling behaviors involve tactical aggression to incite emotional responses, which can adversely affect the target's well-being.

Overview

All data

22 statements · 18% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Named after: troll
Male form of label: متصيد
Female form of label: متصيدة
trolka
Different from: troll
Field of this occupation: trolling
Hashtag: troll

On other databases

12 identifiers linking troll across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

18%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 24, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

Suggest a fact or correction

Links

Use this data

curl https://aidb.si/api/v1/entities/Q11281

API docs, limits & keys

Cite this page

AIDB. (2026). troll (Q11281). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/troll-Q11281