goated

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.

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.

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.

'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.

Feels different — better, sadder, more — in a way you cannot explain: 'this song hits different at 2 a.m.' A 2019 phrase that peaked in 2021 and is now used mainly by people describing a sandwich.

Average, and not in a good way — the internet's most efficient dismissal, popularised by a wrestler's promo about the Midwest and applied since to films, meals, and whole years. 'Mid' is the review that ends the review.

To be very good, of a song — 'this slaps' — from Bay Area slang into everyone's mouth by 2020, and now used about food, weather and spreadsheets by people who have never used it about music.