Cool

[0034] Awesome

🎲 Great
English Idioms
All Idioms

Explanation

  • Expresses strong approval, admiration, enthusiasm, or excitement.
  • Means excellent, great, wonderful, very impressive.

Origin

  • Originally meant inspiring awe, often with connotations of fear or reverence (e.g., the awesome power of nature).
  • Its meaning shifted dramatically in the latter half of the 20th century, particularly in American slang (popularized in the 1970s/80s).
  • It became a general-purpose expression for anything considered very good or impressive.

Synonyms & Related Expressions

  • Great! / Fantastic! / Excellent! / Wonderful! / Amazing! / Superb!
  • Brilliant! (Especially UK/Aus)
  • Cool! (Less strong)
  • Sweet! (Informal)
  • Incredible! / Terrific!

Alternatives

Slang/Informal:

  • Sweet!
  • Sick! (Youth slang, means impressive/excellent)
  • Dope! (AAVE origin, means excellent/cool)
  • Wicked! (UK/New England slang)
  • Mint! / Ace! (UK slang)
  • Killer! (Means excellent/impressive)
  • Badass! (Means impressively tough or cool)
  • Off the hook! (Older slang, means excellent/exciting)

Vulgar/Emphatic:

  • Fuck yeah!
  • Fucking awesome! / Fuckin' A!
  • Hell yeah!
  • Badass! (Can lean vulgar depending on context)
  • Kickass!

Milder/Standard:

  • Great!
  • Wonderful!
  • Fantastic!
  • Excellent!
  • Amazing!
  • Terrific!
  • Brilliant! (Especially UK/Aus)

Situational Appropriateness

  • Informal to semi-formal.
  • Very common in casual conversations, expressing genuine enthusiasm.
  • While generally positive, its overuse or use in very formal settings might seem unprofessional or juvenile depending on the context and speaker.

Misunderstanding Warnings

  • Rarely misunderstood due to its strong positive connotation in modern usage.
  • Overuse can dilute its impact, making strong praise sound generic.

Examples

  • You got the promotion? That's awesome!
  • We had an awesome time on vacation.
  • Thanks for fixing my laptop! / Awesome, glad I could help. (Can sometimes be used more casually like 'Great' or 'Okay')

Dialogue

Social Media Examples

  • Tweet: Just saw the Northern Lights for the first time! Absolutely awesome! #travel #aurora
  • Comment on a success post: You reached your fundraising goal? Awesome job!
  • Instagram caption: Awesome day hiking with friends! ⛰️☀️

Response Patterns

  • Used as a strong positive reaction to news, suggestions, or events.
  • The person receiving the Awesome! might smile, say Thanks!, or elaborate further.

Common Follow-up Questions/Actions

After hearing Awesome!:

  • The conversation often continues with enthusiasm: Awesome! Tell me all about it!
  • Or confirms understanding/agreement: Awesome! Let's do it.
  • The person sharing the news might elaborate: Yeah, I'm so excited!

Conversation Starter

  • No.
  • It's a reaction to something else.

Intonation

  • Typically enthusiastic, with a high pitch and strong stress, usually on the first syllable (AW-some!).
  • Often has a falling intonation at the end.
  • Can be said more calmly but still implies strong positivity.

Generation Differences

  • Extremely common across most age groups since the 1980s (Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z).
  • Older generations might use it less frequently, perhaps preferring Wonderful, Excellent, or Terrific.

Regional Variations

  • Very characteristic of North American English (US/Canada).
  • Widely understood and used elsewhere (UK, Aus, NZ), but alternatives like Brilliant might be more common in some regions (especially UK).
Cool
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