First Ever Tour Of Titus’s Room
A2 English listening practice · American English · Curated for beginners
What does “sick” mean as American slang?
In American slang, sick can mean “awesome, cool, impressive,” the opposite of its medical meaning. That’s sick = that’s amazing. The flip started in 1980s and 1990s American skate, surf, and snowboard scenes, where dangerous, hard-to-pull-off tricks were called sick. From there it moved into hip-hop, gaming, and general teen English. Other examples of the same flip: bad (good), wicked (great), killer (excellent). Beginners sometimes get confused when an American friend looks at their new haircut and says “that’s sick.”
In this clip, a kid sees his friend’s bedroom for the first time and reacts: “Oh, this is sick. Show us around.”
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A2 English listening practice listening practice?
General English frequency
Spoken English frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s A2 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In American skate, surf, and snowboard YouTube channels
- ▸In American gaming streams (Twitch, YouTube Gaming)
- ▸In American hip-hop and rap lyrics (Lil Wayne, Drake, Kendrick Lamar)
- ▸In American teen and college conversations
- ▸In American sitcoms about young adults (Workaholics, Atlanta)