Entry · catalog no. 5069

wack

/ — /pending

adjective · Northeast — New York City, then nationwide · 2026

✓ Verified

Bad; substandard; lacking skill or originality. The exact opposite of def, and the harshest thing you can say about somebody's work.

“The beat was fine but the hook was wack.”

Origin & Attribution

New York Black speech of the 1970s, where "wack" first attached to PCP, then hardened by the end of the decade into a verdict on anything worthless. Hip-hop made it a standard of judgment — Keith Haring's 1986 "Crack Is Wack" mural took the word straight from Harlem and put it on a handball court.

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The Northeast

Northeast — New York City, then nationwide · 2026

Spoken by

Northeast — New York City, then nationwide

$WACKThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Rising

0 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

■

Crack Is Wack, Keith Haring — mural, East Harlem · 1986

submitted

■

Green's Dictionary of Slang, "wack" adj., dating evidence — reference · late 1970s citations

submitted

■

Reginald C. Dennis, "A History of the Word 'Wack'" — essay · 2012

submitted

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