---
slug: "dime-football-slang"
title: Dime
depth_tier: entry
side: OFFENSE
category: "Culture & Lifestyle"
source_id: "CUL-0028"
created: 2026-05-11
updated: 2026-05-11
canonical: https://learningfootball.xyz/terms/dime-football-slang
aliases:
  - threw a dime
  - dropped a dime
  - that was a dime
---
# Dime

## Short Definition

A perfectly placed pass on a difficult throw—player and broadcast language for a throw requiring both accuracy and touch, slightly more impressive than a dot.

## Definition

A dime is player and broadcast slang for a perfectly thrown pass—one that combines accuracy, timing, touch, and velocity in a way that makes a difficult throw look effortless. The term evokes the coin's small size: a pass that hit an impossibly precise target, leaving no margin for error. Dimes are usually thrown on deeper or more complex routes where the difficulty of the throw is obvious to any observer.

The word has been in football vocabulary longer than most modern slang—"dropping dimes" entered sports language through basketball, where it means an exceptional assist, and migrated into football as passing games became more prominent. In football it attached specifically to throws, carrying the same sense of precision and skill the basketball usage implies.

Coaches and analysts describe the same throw as placing the ball with touch, threading a window, or fitting the ball into coverage. Broadcast language includes "a perfect pass," "beautifully thrown," or "the only way to complete that is to throw it exactly there." Dime is the player and fan vocabulary for that same category of throw—impressive enough that technical description undersells it.

Dime is one of the more durable pieces of football slang precisely because it has a clear meaning tethered to a specific kind of play. Unlike purely evaluative slang, dime describes something observable and specific: a throw that was both correct in placement and impressive in execution.

## Example

"Forty-yard strike down the seam, two defenders converging, ball arrives exactly between them. Coaches call that anticipation throwing. Everyone else calls it a dime."

## Common Confusion

Dime and dot are related but not interchangeable. A dot describes precision of placement—hitting the exact spot. A dime implies the throw was also impressive for its difficulty, usually on a deeper or more contested pass where touch, timing, and arm talent were required. You can throw a dot on a short completion; a dime typically carries more implied difficulty.

## Related

- dot
- cpoe
- air-yards
- true-completion-percentage
- passer-rating

---
Source: https://learningfootball.xyz/terms/dime-football-slang