noun
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music
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a usually unaccented beat, esp the last in a bar
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the upward gesture of a conductor's baton indicating this Compare downbeat
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an upward trend (in prosperity, etc)
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of upbeat
1865–70; 1950–55 upbeat for def. 3; up- + beat
Explanation
If you tend to be cheerful and positive no matter what's going on, your friends probably describe you as upbeat. When your soccer coach wants to be encouraging, she gives the team an upbeat speech. Need to cheer yourself up? Spend some time with an upbeat friend, watch an upbeat movie, or listen to some upbeat music. This informal adjective comes from the word's original musical meaning, "the beat of a bar at which the conductor's baton is in a raised position." Music writers in the 1940s used the slang phrase "on the upbeat" to mean "getting better." The "cheerful" meaning followed around 1947.
Vocabulary lists containing upbeat
Cindy Williams (1947–2023) Tribute List
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Louisiana’s Way Home
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Zara's Rules for Record-Breaking Fun
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The upbeat take from Trivariate wasn’t enough to stem the bleeding, however.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 16, 2026
Scottie Scheffler, the world number one and defending champion who comes into this week after a rare missed cut at the Scottish Open, seemed similarly upbeat about the set-up.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
That money was raised on an upbeat day for the sector.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
This month’s turnaround has been so dramatic that even the preternaturally upbeat Floridian was unprepared for her success.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Dad comes in and checks on me, and although he pretends to be upbeat, he’s irked.
From "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen
“He took care with short notes that shouldn’t be hurried over, and with upbeats, which can be more important than downbeats — all the things that magic is made of.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2017
An unusually upbeat beginning to the festival, then, or at least it would have been were Dennehy's upbeats more easily distinguished from his down.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 19, 2012
Tuesday’s first set began as the album does: with “España,” a kinetic concoction set in 5/4 meter, its springy melody hitting the upbeats in a minor scale.
From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2011
The first important bebop drummers, of which he was one, used silences and moderation and self-imposed restrictions to make their sneaked upbeats pop more vividly.
From New York Times ● Sep. 26, 2010
Turnage was lucky to find an ideal conductor in David Robertson, a musician both consistently upbeat and unfailingly precise with his upbeats.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 27, 2010
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
