five-by-five

English

Alternative forms

• five by five

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Etymology 1

From radio communications phrase dating from the 1950s. The first five referred to a rating of signal clarity, the other to reception strength. See Signal strength and readability report on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Adjective

five-by-five (not comparable)

1. Loud and clear.
   • 2019 December 13, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary‎^[1], archived from the original on 13 February 2025:

     "Hon, are you getting good data from us?" "Five-by-five." "Any sign of hostiles?" "Nope." "Can I get a few more syllables from you?"

   • 2024 September 28, Harry Blank, “Not Ready for Prime Time”, in Deadlined, →ISBN, page 602:

     McInnis nodded, and Carter keyed the mic. "CAONCI-Site-43 calling Overwatch Command," he intoned in his best radio voice. Veiksaar smirked. "CAONCI-Site-43, Overwatch Command. Do you read?"
     The response came immediately, to the visible relief of all nine of them. Even Wettle. "Five by five, CAONCI-Site-43. Five by five."

2. Fine; OK.

Translations

loud and clear

• French: cinq sur cinq

Etymology 2

Noun

five-by-five (plural five-by-fives)

1. (basketball) A performance in which a player accumulates five points in each of five statistical categories (points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks) in a single game.
2. (slang) Someone whose body is roughly shaped like a square; a short and fat person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fat person

   • 1953, Warren Eyster, Ear From the Customary Skies, New York, N.Y.: Random House, page 335:

     "Yeah? No stuff? You, a date? Wad yuh know. What is she, a five-by-five?"

   • 1998, Jeremiah Healy, The Only Good Lawyer: A John Francis Cuddy Mystery, New York, N.Y. […]: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 71:

     "The muscle was Oscar Huong, a real Mr. five-by-five. Father supposedly a black Marine boxing champion. The brains was Nguyen Trinh—or 'Nugey,' for short. He had no idea who his daddy was."

Translations

basketball term

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fem-av-fem m

References

• “five-by-five n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present