Entry · catalog no. 4577
def
/ — /pending
adjective · Northeast — New York City · 2026
✓ Verified
1.
Excellent, first-rate. The highest compliment of early hip-hop, clipped from "death" — so good it kills.
“That routine was def, wasn't nobody touching them.”
Origin & Attribution
New York hip-hop of the early 1980s, where "the death" as superlative was shortened to a single syllable. Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin built a label on it in 1984, and HBO borrowed it for a comedy show in 1992 — by which point the street had already moved on.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
Northeast — New York City · 2026
Spoken by
Northeast — New York City
$DEFThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Rising0 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
12/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2026
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
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Citations & Sources
■
Def Jam Recordings, founded — label · 1984
submitted
■
Def Comedy Jam, HBO — television series · 1992
submitted
■
+ Cite a source"My Adidas," Run-D.M.C. — single · 1986
submitted
See also