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• banda
  banda

  noun

  a style of Mexican dance music featuring brass instruments and having a heavy beat.
• Banda
  Banda

  noun

  Hastings Kamuzu 1906–97, Malawi physician, political leader, and public official: 1st president of Malawi 1966–94.

banda

¹ American  

[bahn-duh] / ˈbɑn də /

noun

1. a style of Mexican dance music featuring brass instruments and having a heavy beat.

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Banda ² American  

[ban-duh] / ˈbæn də /

noun

1. Hastings Kamuzu 1906–97, Malawi physician, political leader, and public official: 1st president of Malawi 1966–94.

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Banda British  

/ ˈbændə /

noun

1. Hastings Kamuzu (kæˈmuːzuː). 1906–97, Malawi statesman. As first prime minister of Nyasaland (from 1963), he led his country to independence (1964) as Malawi: president (1966–94)

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Etymology

Origin of banda

First recorded in 1990–95; from Mexican Spanish: literally, band ¹ (in the sense of “group of musicians”)

Example Sentences

Chuy Lizarraga and José Angel Ledezma Quintero—popularly known as El Coyote—boast a combined 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify, but their latest venture isn’t named after a heartbreak ballad or a rural banda anthem.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 16, 2026

Barraza is onstage with a mariachi accompanying his banda.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025

Thrifted banda puffer jackets hang on the closet wall: Banda Recodo, Banda Machos, El Coyote y su Banda Tierra Santa.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025

It’s a banda festival going on its second year and organized by Division 9 Gallery — a community arts space that hosts citywide Latino-focused cultural events.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 8, 2025

At a fixed hour every day I heard from my room the distant sound of a banda playing a passadoble, and military exercises always apparently ended with that sort of music.

From An Autobiography by Stravinsky, Igor