Idiom
built different
Meaning
Able to do things which others cannot; extremely talented or unusual.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He finished the marathon in record time; he is just built different.”
“My brother is built different and never feels cold, even in the snow.”
“Most people would have given up after that injury, but she returned to the court even stronger because she is built different.”
“You can tell the new chef is built different because he manages the busiest kitchen in the city without ever losing his temper or making a mistake.”
“While everyone else needs a calculator for basic math, she does complex multiplication in her head instantly; she is truly built different.”
“While his peers struggled to grasp the complex theory, he solved the equation in seconds, proving that his analytical mind was simply built different.”
Examples
simple
“He finished the marathon in record time; he is just built different.”
“My brother is built different and never feels cold, even in the snow.”
contextual
“Most people would have given up after that injury, but she returned to the court even stronger because she is built different.”
“You can tell the new chef is built different because he manages the busiest kitchen in the city without ever losing his temper or making a mistake.”
“While everyone else needs a calculator for basic math, she does complex multiplication in her head instantly; she is truly built different.”
complex
“While his peers struggled to grasp the complex theory, he solved the equation in seconds, proving that his analytical mind was simply built different.”
Origin
The term gained popularity in July 2020 through a trend on the video-sharing platform TikTok. It appeared in a series of recordings in which users claimed an ability to perform various improbable tasks, attributing their success to being built different. While the phrasing implies a unique physical or temperamental constitution, the trend was largely a matter of parody.
Key words
Related idioms
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