English

Abbreviation

def.

1. deficit
2. definitely
3. definition

Adjective

def ‎(comparative deffer, superlative deffest)

1. (African American Vernacular, slang) very good (short for "definitive" or "definitely", alternately an eye spelling of "death" referring to an absolute)
   • Safire, William (1988-09-25), “On Language: 'Eat Your Peas'”, in The New York Times, The New York Times Company "Def, a clip of definitely is now the word for terrif, and on some campuses has out-neatened neat."
   • Brent, Staples (1988-12-18), “On Language: 'High on the Five'”, in The New York Times, The New York Times Company " Failing to see the word's antecedents, I suspected that def was either bogus or an orphan, lost to its slang ancestors through mispronunciation or misspelling... Three critics of popular music failed to provide me with satisfactory antecedents. One suggested that def was an abbreviation of definitely, another suggested deference and the third had no hunch at all... Russell Simmons, a founder of the company [Def Jam Recordings], said that his partner, in designing the logo for the company's record label, may have been the first to set def down in writing. Simmons also said that his associate had clearly misheard the word as it was then spoken in the streets. Def, Simmons said, was a mispronunciation of death."

Statistics

Anagrams

• fed, Fed, Fed., FED

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowing from Ottoman Turkish دف ‎(def), from Persian دف ‎(daf).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dêf/

Noun

dȅf m ‎(Cyrillic spelling де̏ф)

1. daf
2. tambourine

Declension

See also

• daire

Zazaki

Etymology

Compare Persian دف ‎(daf).

Noun

def ?

1. daf (a Persian frame drum)