side quest

What does side quest mean?

In a role-playing game, the main quest is the story you have to finish. Side quests are the optional jobs a character hands you on the way: find a lost ring, deliver a letter, clear the rats out of a cellar. They rarely change the ending, but they are often where the fun is.

Off the screen, a side quest is any detour from what you were meant to be doing. Merriam-Webster's slang entry defines it as a secondary pursuit, career or activity separate from your main focus, and its examples run from a quick stop on the way somewhere to a second job. Dictionary.com lists the same split: a game mission off the main storyline, and "a secondary objective or pursuit."

The phrase carries two moods:

• Playful: an unplanned adventure you are glad you took. You went out for coffee and ended up at a flea market, then a stranger's dog adoption event. That day was all side quests.
• Sarcastic: a distraction that pulls focus. A company spending months on a pet project nobody asked for is "on a side quest."

There is also the noun side quest energy, for a person or mood that is easily pulled off course, and the caption formula "completed another side quest," posted with photos of anything odd and memorable.

Examples

• Group chat: "went to return one sweater and somehow ended up at a pottery class. huge side quest"
• TikTok caption: "side quest: helping a lost tourist find the ferry"
• Road trip: "we are taking a side quest to the world's biggest ball of twine"
• School: "joining the chess club is my side quest this semester"
• At work: "the redesign is the priority. no side quests until it ships"
• Gaming: "skip the side quests, the main story is only 20 hours"
• Parent overhears: "Mom's side quest was finding the cheapest gas in three counties"

Side quest works as a noun almost everywhere, with "on a side quest," "take a side quest" and "completed a side quest" the most common frames. The more random the detour, the better the word fits.

Where did side quest come from?

• Video games: Side quests are a long-standing feature of role-playing games, where optional missions add rewards, story and playtime. Merriam-Webster's gaming glossary uses the same definition.
• 2011: An Urban Dictionary entry for "side quested," meaning sidetracked by something you hope will pay off later, appears in May, Know Your Meme reports. By November, a Skyrim meme joked about playing for hours and never finishing the main quest.
• 2020-2021: Memes on Reddit begin labeling ordinary to-do list items as side quests. In November 2021, an Urban Dictionary user adds the real-life definition that became the top-voted one.
• April 2024: A TikTok by @rubyscoobytrash framing a real-life moment as a side quest passes 13 million views in three months, per Know Your Meme, and the phrase goes fully mainstream.
• 2025: The Daily Dot rounds up singer PinkPantheress's "random side quests," from a chess tournament trophy to an Impractical Jokers prank.
• 2026: The term is ordinary journalism vocabulary. NPR's Life Kit published a guide in August 2026 to choosing a side quest as a form of adult play, and Dictionary.com cites recent uses in Slate and the Los Angeles Times.

Side quest vs main quest vs canon event

The test is whether it was optional. A canon event happens to you. A side quest is something you chose, or wandered into.

Is side quest rude?

No. Side quest is a gentle, school-safe phrase with no hidden meaning. Teachers can use it, and a teen describing their weekend as a string of side quests is just telling you it was eventful.

The only sting comes when it is used to shrink someone's work. Calling a colleague's project "his little side quest" suggests it does not matter. At home, a parent saying "this is not the time for side quests" during homework is perfectly reasonable, and most teens will understand exactly what is meant.

How to reply to side quest

• Friend texts "I'm on a side quest, be there in 40": "Report back with the full lore."
• Your kid says "can we take a side quest to the arcade": "One side quest. Then the main quest is groceries."
• Coworker says "sorry, I went on a side quest with that data": "Fine, but did it find anything we can use?"

Is side quest still used in 2026?

Yes, and it is still spreading. It has moved past gamer talk and teen captions into newspapers, wellness advice and business writing. NPR's 2026 framing of side quests as play for adults shows how far it has traveled.

It fits a wider habit of describing life in game terms, alongside NPC and GG. The gaming slang guide has more of those.