Five by five

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Meaning

Completely satisfactory; loud, clear, and working well. Recognisable but less common outside radio or pop-culture contexts Regional use: United States military and aerospace, later general slang.

Origin

World War II U.S. military radio jargon. Operators rated signal strength and readability on scales from one to five, so a transmission that was five by five received the top mark on both measures. The wording is printed in a 1946 Marine Corps account of wartime events and broadened into all is well, helped by military service and the U.S. space programme.

Variants

  • five-by-five
  • 5 by 5

Usage Examples

  • Base, this is Ridge Team; your signal is five by five.
  • The generator is steady, the pumps are running, and everything is five by five.

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