sick
Sick means exceptionally good, impressive, or cool, praising a trick, song, or look. It also means ill or disturbing, so the words around it decide which.
By Cal Hewitt, Gen X · Researched from public sources ·
What it means
The approving sense reacts to something striking: a skateboard trick, a song, a look, or a game-winning play. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries defines it as "very good, a lot of fun," Cambridge Dictionary gives "very good, excellent," and American Heritage Dictionary labels it "Slang. Excellent; outstanding," with the example "did a sick run down the halfpipe." It works alone as a reaction, "that's sick," or in front of whatever earned the praise: a sick beat, a sick fit, a sick goal. The same four letters carry three other meanings. "I'm sick" or "I called in sick" means ill. "I'm sick of this" means fed up. A sick joke, or "that's sick" about a cruel act, means disturbing or morally offensive. Oxford and American Heritage list these senses side by side with the approving one, so the noun and the situation around the word settle which is meant: a trick or a song points to praise, symptoms or an absence points to illness, and cruelty or harm points to the disturbing sense. Praising a thing lands clearly, "your edit is sick," "that run was sick," but praising a person directly is riskier: "you're sick" reads first as an accusation of illness or cruelty. The closest comparison is cool, which is broader and lower intensity; sick usually signals more excitement and keeps a suggestion of difficulty or risk, especially in skating, snowboarding, and gaming contexts, where American Heritage's and Cambridge's own example sentences both come from.
See the quick definition in the sick dictionary entry.
How to use it
“that trick was sick”
Praise for a skate, game, or sports move. The approving sense.
“your edit is sick”
Praise aimed at the work itself, which keeps the compliment clear.
“i called in sick today”
The literal sense: ill, and not praise.
“that joke was sick”
The disturbing sense, about something cruel or offensive, and not praise.
Where it came from
The earliest documented evidence for the approving sense comes from U.S. campus slang. Grammarphobia reports the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation as a 1983 typescript from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC-CH Campus Slang: "Sick, unbelievably good: The Fleetwood Mac concert was sick." Grammarphobia also cites a 2002 U.S. News & World Report line, "'That's siiiick!' gushes an admiring fan," as later evidence of the same sense in wider circulation.
A second historical reference, Jonathon Green's Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English, gives a different earliest citation for the same sense, "excellent; wonderful": Fall 1987, from Connie Eble's UNC-CH Campus Slang. Both records describe how students were already talking; neither points to a coining by a named person, so no single coiner is documented. The 1983 date and the 1987 date are two separate dictionaries reporting the earliest evidence each one located.
The OED describes the sense as now especially used in skateboarding and surfing, per Grammarphobia's reporting, and American Heritage's and Cambridge's own example sentences describe a halfpipe run and snowboarders' tricks. That is a description of where the word is strongly used today; the 1983 campus citation comes first in the documented record. BBC Learning English recorded the same sense among British teenagers on June 9, 2009, years before it became a search-engine question about Gen Z.
No single person is credited, the origin is commonly reported.
Where it's popular
General English-language use, especially in texts, comments, and captions, with the strongest current association in skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, gaming, and sports highlight clips.
How it caught on
- 1983Grammarphobia reports the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation for sick meaning excellent: a University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill campus slang typescript, "The Fleetwood Mac concert was sick."
- Fall 1987Jonathon Green's Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English dates its own earliest citation for "excellent; wonderful" to Connie Eble's UNC-CH Campus Slang.
- 2002U.S. News & World Report quotes an admiring fan saying "That's siiiick!", per Grammarphobia's reporting of the OED's evidence.
- June 9, 2009BBC Learning English documents sick as widespread British teenage slang for good, impressive, or cool, and notes that older listeners might wonder whether it means good or bad.
- 2012English with Ronnie's YouTube lesson on how slang like sick, bad ass, and wicked flips a negative word into praise passes 834,000 views.
Common mix-ups
Older readers often take a bare "that's sick" as a complaint about illness or disgust. BBC Learning English documented this exact confusion among British teenagers in 2009: young speakers meant good, impressive, or cool, and the broadcaster noted that older listeners might briefly wonder whether the word was positive or negative. The noun and the situation around it settle the reading: a trick, song, or look plus excitement points to praise, symptoms or an absence points to illness, and a description of cruelty points to the disturbing sense.
Test yourself
Which sick is it?
0/21. Your friend texts, "your edit is sick." What are they saying?
2. Where does the earliest documented evidence for sick meaning excellent come from?
Related slang
Questions people ask
What does sick mean in slang?
It means exceptionally good, impressive, or cool, stronger than a plain "good." Oxford Learner's Dictionaries defines the slang sense as "very good, a lot of fun," and Cambridge Dictionary gives "very good, excellent." It usually praises a trick, a look, a song, or a performance.
Sick meaning slang negative, what does that mean?
Sick carries three separate negative or literal meanings alongside the praise one: ill ("I'm sick," "call in sick"), fed up ("I'm sick of this"), and disturbing or cruel ("a sick joke," "that's sick" after a harmful act). The surrounding sentence tells you which one is meant.
Is sick Gen Z slang?
No. The approving sense is documented in a 1983 campus slang collection from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and BBC Learning English recorded the same use among British teenagers in 2009. Both are well before Gen Z's search traffic on this word.
Did skateboarding or surfing start this meaning of sick?
No source establishes that. American Heritage and Cambridge both use skateboarding and snowboarding examples because the word is strongly associated with those sports now, but the earliest written evidence for the approving sense comes from 1980s campus slang, years before either sport is mentioned in the record.
Can I say "you're sick" as a compliment?
It is risky. Said about a thing or a performance, sick reads clearly as praise: "your edit is sick," "that run was sick." Said directly to a person, "you're sick" usually reads as illness or an accusation of cruelty first. "Your moves are sick" gets the compliment across without the confusion.
Is it rude to say sick?
Not when it clearly means excellent. It fits with friends and informal posts, but it is worth skipping in formal writing, professional communication, and medical contexts, where the illness or disgust sense could get read instead.
Grammarphobia reports the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation for sick meaning excellent as a 1983 line about a Fleetwood Mac concert.
- https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/sick_1
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/sick
- https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=sick
- https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2014/07/sick.html
- https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/uptodate/pdf/090609_uptodate_sick.pdf
- https://thariqalfathih.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ulrlklwnrnekihejaojl-signature-13e671e7ce00256288168433c3e3892dc737b7bd85e3450f6bb8fe797ddcf76d-poli-141104171516-conversion-gate01-1.pdf
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8kd-_4TenY
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