绝绝子jué jué zǐ

Absolutely amazing

jué jué zǐ!绝绝子！Amazing!

绝绝子 is an over-the-top “amazing!”. It praises something as perfect, and with the right tone it says the opposite: “just awful”.

Took off: 2021
Started in: Fan forums
Today: Fading

What it means

绝 means “extreme” or “unmatched”, as in 绝了, “incredible”. Doubling it and adding the cute ending 子 makes it sound young and gushing, the way “literally the best” sounds in English. The same ending made 无语子, “speechless”.

How people use it

By 2023 many young people found it cringe, and today it is used mostly with a wink or as sarcasm.

琦琦

我剪头发了，看朋友圈
wǒ jiǎn tóu fa le, kàn péng you quān
I got a haircut. Check my Moments.
看了，绝绝子！
kàn le, jué jué zǐ!
Saw it. Literally the best!
你是认真的还是在笑我？
nǐ shì rèn zhēn de hái shì zài xiào wǒ?
Are you serious or making fun of me?
一半一半吧
yí bàn yí bàn ba
Half and half.

More examples

这条裙子太好看了，绝绝子！
zhè tiáo qún zi tài hǎo kàn le, jué jué zǐ!
This dress is gorgeous. Amazing!
等了两个小时还没上菜，真是绝绝子。
děng le liǎng gè xiǎo shí hái méi shàng cài, zhēn shì jué jué zǐ.
Two hours and the food still hasn’t come. Just amazing.

Where it came from

The encyclopedia baike.com traces it to a fan forum on Baidu Tieba where users added 子 to words, and says it spread in 2020 among fans of the talent show 青春有你 before it went everywhere in 2021. There is little other evidence for the first use.

The national language monitoring center put 绝绝子 on its list of the top internet phrases of 2021. 咬文嚼字 refused it: its editor said the word-building was a game, not normal Chinese.

The original. There is no single image. The baike.com entry describes the word’s history. baike.com (in Chinese)