goat

'Greatest of all time' — from a boxer's company name to a rapper's album to the argument that runs every sports comment section, and the goat emoji that settles it. The record's entry for the superlative that became an animal.

Performed superbly, with no crumbs left. Sometimes extended to 'ate and left no crumbs', which is the same thing said by someone who has not.

To win a game for a team that did not deserve it — to carry — and 'carried' as the state of the teammates who were. The record's entry for the verb of doing everyone's job, which has left games entirely and is now said about group projects.

Winning when it counts, against the odds — a clutch play, to clutch it — from sport into gaming and out again into anything done under pressure at the last moment. The record's entry for the word that means 'when it mattered'.

Finished, doomed, beyond help. Applies to a person, a country or a group project with equal ease, which is why it stuck.

🔥 — approval, heat, excellence — as the emoji under any good photo, song or outfit, and the record's entry for the compliment that requires no words and has been given to every selfie since 2014.

Excessive, unearned praise — and, from April 2025, the word for what a chatbot does when it tells you your business plan is genius. Sam Altman used it about his own model, which is how slang gets into the minutes.

The adjective form of GOAT — 'he's goated', 'goated with the sauce' — for someone or something at the top of its game. From sport and gaming into everything, and one of the few praise words that has not yet become sarcastic.