Entry · catalog no. 4311
dime
/ /daɪm/ /DYME
noun · nationwide; New York · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
A perfect ten in attractiveness — from the dime's worth of ten cents. A dime, or dime piece, is someone whose looks leave no points to dock. Usually said of a woman, occasionally of anyone or anything flawless.
“She walked in looking like a straight dime and the whole room turned.”
Origin & Attribution
African American and hip-hop speech of the 1990s, most active in the New York metropolitan area, from the ten-out-of-ten scale — a dime being ten cents. Documented across rap lyrics from the mid-1990s on.
1990s
In rap lyrics for a perfect ten
2000s
General slang for a flawless looker
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
nationwide; New York · 1990s
Spoken by
Black American and hip-hop speakers
$DIMEThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady32 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
65/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1994
in the culture
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
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
The Right Rhymes hip-hop dictionary, "dime"/"dimepiece"
1990s
■
+ Cite a sourceGreen's Dictionary of Slang, "dime"
1990s
See also