Word.ws English Dictionary

kick-ass

/ˈkɪkæs/

kick-ass adjective: rough, aggressive; powerful and successful.

Adjective

kick-ass (not comparable)

  1. (slang, vulgar) Rough, aggressive; powerful and successful.
  2. (slang, vulgar) Excellent, first-class.
    • I guess it helped that they were one of the few bands with an environmental sensibility but, more importantly, they played some kick-arse rock'n'roll.2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 276
    • His plan is to create a company of 20 “kick-ass” dancers.2007 January 5, The Guardian, page 3

Forms of kick-ass

alternative formkickass
alternative formkick-arse

Origin of kick-ass

From kick + -ass.

Words formed from kick-ass

Questions about kick-ass

What does kick-ass mean?
Kick-ass means rough, aggressive; powerful and successful.
What part of speech is kick-ass?
Kick-ass is an adjective.
How do you pronounce kick-ass?
Kick-ass is pronounced /ˈkɪkæs/.

Words near kick-ass in the dictionary

  1. kick wheel
  2. kick wheels
  3. kick with
  4. kick with the other foot
  5. kick-arse
  6. kick-ass
  7. kick-assery
  8. kick-back
  9. kick-backs
  10. kick-ball
  11. kick-balls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kick-ass (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-kick-ass.wav.

Cite this entry: “kick-ass.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kick-ass. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.