German · Joy & 'Hell Yes'
Geil!
GYLE · /ɡaɪl/
Awesome! / Sick! / Hell yes!
2/5 Bar-safe
coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances
Literally
"Horny / lecherous"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
The single most useful German slang word and a beautiful trap: it literally means "horny," but for two generations it's mostly meant "awesome." "Geil!" at a concert is just "amazing." That said, the sexual reading never fully dies, so context carries it — "geil auf dich" is still very much horny. Intensify at will: saugeil, affengeil, hammergeil, endgeil.
Heard in the wild
Neues Fahrrad? Voll geil!
New bike? So sick!
Where it lands
Germany, Austria — universal; Switzerland understood
Quick answers
- What does "Geil!" mean?
- In German, "Geil!" means "Awesome! / Sick! / Hell yes!". Literally it's "Horny / lecherous". The single most useful German slang word and a beautiful trap: it literally means "horny," but for two generations it's mostly meant "awesome." "Geil!" at a concert is just "amazing." That said, the sexual reading never fully dies, so context carries it — "geil auf dich" is still very much horny. Intensify at will: saugeil, affengeil, hammergeil, endgeil.
- Is "Geil!" offensive?
- It's on the mild end — 2/5 (Bar-safe) on the Punch-o-Meter. coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances.
- How do you pronounce "Geil!"?
- Say it "GYLE" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: ɡaɪl.
Related in German
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "That's awesome".
- French Ça déchire ! That rocks! / That's awesome!
- Greek ρε μαλάκα Hey man / dude / bro — the affectionate-insult greeting between friends.
- Italian Figo! Cool! / Awesome! / Sick!
- Japanese やばい Insane / crazy / no way — good OR bad, from context
- Korean 존나 Fucking / hella — the vulgar intensifier that goes in front of everything.
- Polish zajebisty Fucking awesome / badass — the great slang-POSITIVE of the jebać family.
- Portuguese Do caralho Fucking awesome — OR, with 'casa do', the middle of nowhere
- Russian Класс! Awesome! / Great! / Cool!
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