1. Mile High
What it means everywhere else: The club you get into for figuring out how to be both creative and ambidextrous in an airplane bathroom with someone else.
What it means in Denver: Denver is the Mile High City because it is exactly one mile high, making the term both literally and figuratively accurate, which is cool because the balls fly farther, drinks get you buzzed faster and, get it? You’re high.
2. Sunshine
What it means everywhere else: What you’re begging for after a few days straight of rain.
What it means in Denver: What you get over 300 days out of the year, whether you beg or not, and the reason you buy sunscreen in bulk.
3. Chubby
What it means everywhere else: How you felt about five months after going away to college.
What it means in Denver: Only the best late night Mexican munchies this side of the border.
4. Chili
What it means everywhere else: A Mexican dish made sometimes with beans, other times without, but is almost always characteristically red.
What it means in Denver: The classic Denver green chili. Green chiles from New Mexico give this stuff its unique green hue, best enjoyed when slopped over top of a Mexican hamburger.
5. Fourteener
What it means everywhere else: A person at the most unpleasant age of youth, who is driven to irrational behavior due to hormones.
What it means in Denver: The magic number for mountain climbers. A “fourteener” means you reached a peak higher than 14,000 feet. But more people talk about it than actually do it.
6. Ampitheater
What it means everywhere else: Where you go in town to catch the latest show.
What it means in Denver: Red Rocks. Where the latest shows come to Denver to get the coolest view. Also the best spot in town for a killer glutes workout.
7. Art Exhibit
What it means everywhere else: Going to an art museum to browse through the latest collection of paintings and sculptures.
What it means in Denver: Going outside and taking in the view.
8. Incomplete
Source: YouTube
What it means everywhere else: The grade you got on your 10th grade chemistry final for falling asleep while trying to explain the solubility of salt. You’re only human, after all.
What it means in Denver: The Broncos chant that erupts through the stadium every time there is an incomplete pass to remind you that you’re on Denver turf and your mistakes won’t go un-mocked. (Wah, wah, wah.)
9. Bear
What it means everywhere else: What hope to not discover spying on you while hiking through the woods.
What it means in Denver: The gigantic, adorable structure you will find spying on you at the art museum.
10. Mint
What it means everywhere else: The best Girl Scout cookies, in the thin variety.
What it means in Denver: You like money, right? Well, Denver just prints its own. Boom.
11. Cricket
What it means everywhere else: The summertime bug that demands to be heard.
What it means in Denver: The place to go for the fancy schmancy shops and restaurants in Cherry Creek with an upside down hockey rink on the ceiling.
12. Beer
What it means everywhere else: Probably what you’d rather be drinking right now.
What it means in Denver: A list about Denver isn’t complete without a nod to the rest of their beer scene, which started with Coors, but has exploded into a craft beer and microbrewery mecca.
13. Epic
What it means everywhere else: The word folks on the internet use to over-celebrate anything of moderate interest.
What it means in Denver: The beer of all beers. There is no hyperbole here, people. It is, for all intents and purposes, the most epic.
14. Bluebird
What it means everywhere else: Relatively self-explanatory, a bird with feathers of a blue hue.
What it means in Denver: The quaint and awesome music venue in Denver where you go for the more obscure bands to gain your indie street cred.
15. Riot
What it means everywhere else: Civil unrest.
What it means in Denver: Yes, we really all do scream for ice cream, thanks to Ice Cream Riot. And with creations like Pop Tart ice cream sandwiches, who wouldn’t?
16. Smartypants
What it means everywhere else: What your sister acted like all through high school. And still does most of the time.
What it means in Denver: What most of the people in Denver are. And considering that the city has one of the highest percentages of collegiate degrees, it’s not an act that you can call them out on like your sister.
17. South Park
What it means everywhere else: A cartoon on Comedy Central that changed the way you looked at cartoons in middle school.
What it means in Denver: A real town outside of Denver. Granted, it has, like, one building. But it’s still there, giving Denverites partial South Park bragging rights.
18. Honey
What it means everywhere else: That heavenly bee nectar that you use to sweeten your tea.
What it means in Denver: What you dip your pizza crust in. Duh.
19. Raiders
What it means everywhere else: An NFL team that plays for Oakland.
What it means in Denver: If football rivalries were stars, then the hatred Broncos fans hold for Raiders fans would be a thousand suns. Seriously, if you have to dress up like characters called “Darth Raider,” it goes without saying that you’re trying too hard.
20. Yoga Pants
What it means everywhere else: What you wear to the gym.
What it means in Denver: What you wear everywhere and (almost) anywhere. You more than likely have the body for it and you’re in Denver where everyone’s either on their way to the gym, on a bike, or walking around with a yoga mat under their arm to let everyone know exactly where they’re going anyway.
21. Cattle
What it means everywhere else: What you might find if you go to a ranch in Wyoming.
What it means in Denver: They overlook the city like angels and then are paraded around for two weeks in the National Western Stock Show.
22. Public Bathroom
What it means everywhere else: The place you try to avoid unless you’re desperate.
What it means in Denver: Easily the best and most interesting public bathrooms in the country. Sounds weird, right? Well, it is. But it’s also true. You’ll find sinks that sing to you while you wash your hands, scales that hang on the walls, and even a bathroom that touts the same marble as the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier.
23. Independence Day
What it means everywhere else: Fourth of July with fireworks and barbecue and maybe a viewing of Will Smith saving Earth.
What it means in Denver: January 1, the date on which the people of Denver gained the freedom to buy marijuana without the use of an MMJ card, which was already pretty easy to get around in the first place.
24. Rocky
What it means everywhere else: The guy who crushed Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, and Ivan Drago with the eye of the tiger.
What it means in Denver: The Rocky Mountains, just a thirty minute drive away, and viewable from everywhere. Not nearly as violent as the other Rocky, but every bit as bad*ss.
25. Broncos
What it means everywhere else: A glorified horse on steroids that has a bad temper.
What it means in Denver: Only the best team in the history of the NFL. Oh, you want to argue? Did your team have John Elway? Peyton Manning? Didn’t think so. Nice try, though.
26. Flannel
What it means everywhere else: Plaid shirts or accessories worn by lumberjacks and your friendly neighborhood bagpiper.
What it means in Denver: Plaid shirts or accessories you can wear for whatever damn reason because it’s both cool looking and cold out. And you do what you want.
27. Colorful
What it means everywhere else: A palette full of paints, a pack full of Starbursts, the rainbows that come out of Care Bears’ bellies…
What it means in Denver: From the Gold Rush, to rainbow flags, to ganja green… As far as cities go, it doesn’t get much more colorful than Denver. That’s why it’s proud to be the best city in the most colorful state.
What other words mean something different in the Denver? Tell us in the comments below!
