cromulent

English

Etymology

A humorous neologism coined by television writer David X. Cohen; see 1996 quotation.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkrɒmjʊlənt/

Adjective

cromulent (not comparable)

1. Fine, acceptable or normal; excellent, realistic, legitimate or authentic.
   • 1996 February 18, Matt Groening et al., “Lisa the Iconoclast”, The Simpsons, Season 7, Episode 16, production code 3F13:

     Mrs. Krabappel: Embiggens? I never heard that word before moving to Spingfield.

     Ms. Hoover: I don't know why, it's a perfectly cromulent word.

     […]

     Principal Skinner: He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance.

   • 2005 MC Frontalot, “Nerdcore Rising”:

     "The nerdcore could rise up, it could get elevated. / Oh, and wouldn’t all of those tough rappers hate it / if the nerdcore rose up and got elevated / We consider the possibleness of this not overstated. / And I know that possibleness is not a cromulent word; / every syllable injected is intended to be the one you heard / (an absurd juxtaposition of mission and goal)

   • 2006 April 10, “Obituaries and In Memoriams: Benjamin Sidney Linton”:

     He had a boundless passion for music and entertained many with his beautiful voice and perfectly cromulent sense of humor.

   • 2008, Alan M. Polansky, Observed Confidence Levels, ISBN 1584888024, page 216:

     There are certainly other cromulent techniques which may perform well for certain models and assumptions.

   • 2008, David A. Karp, Windows Vista Annoyances, ISBN 0596527624, page 505:

     Of course, you may encounter a new program that doesn't work reliably with UNC paths, and this is a perfectly cromulent workaround.

   • 2008, Bryan O'Sullivan, Don Stewart, and John Goerzen, Real World Haskell, ISBN 0596514980, page 86:

     How well does this function work? For positive integers, it's perfectly cromulent.

See also

• embiggen