13 wonderful, whimsical words to express approval

We are rerunning the most-viewed articles of 2019. This was one of the top five most-popular writing and editing articles of the year.

What’s your favorite word of compliment or admiration? How do you express approval?

These are important questions for each generation of young people, who want a vocabulary all their own. Of course, what’s hip, rad or rippin’ today might not be so groovy tomorrow.

Slang words wax and wane in popularity, but here are 13 ways to convey something’s A-OK:

1. Ace. Meant to convey “top quality,” as in the highest playing card in a standard deck of cards. A “flying ace” in World War I meant a pilot who had shot down five or more planes in combat. A student who gets an A on a test can say, “I aced it!” but once upon a time, it was used as a positive exclamation: “Ace!” meant “Great!”