boffo means outstanding; very good or successful. It carries an Arena rating of 1433, earned across 7 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, boffo ranks #1,712 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #1,805 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,387 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,246 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words.
boffo is pronounced /ˈbɒfoʊ/.
Why “boffo” is a great word
Outstandingly successful or popular, or a thing that is so; entertainment industry slang, likely an alteration of 'box office' or from Italian 'buffo' ("comic actor"), first attested in the early 20th century as a noun for a great joke, with adjectival use emerging by the 1960s. Unlike "blockbuster" (which evokes the fiscal thunderclap of a mega-hit) or "sensational" (which thrills with a whiff of scandal or shock), boffo is the clean, uncomplicated bang of a punchline that lands, the understated play that sells out for months, or the collective, satisfied sigh of an audience on its feet—the pure, undiluted sound of something working exactly as intended.
Etymology
Entertainment industry slang; possibly from box office or buffo.
adj
- Outstanding; very good or successful.e.g.““Come on, Lana. Give me and the bird a chance. We're boffo.”” — 1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN:
noun
- A great success; a hit.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.