bolero
Americannoun
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boleros
plural
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a lively Spanish dance in triple meter.
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the music for this dance.
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a jacket ending above or at the waistline, with or without collar, lapel, and sleeves, worn open in front.
noun
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a Spanish dance, often accompanied by the guitar and castanets, usually in triple time
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a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance
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a kind of short jacket not reaching the waist, with or without sleeves and open at the front: worn by men in Spain and by women elsewhere
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bolero
Borrowed into English from Spanish around 1780–90
Explanation
A bolero is a type of quick, lively Spanish dance. It's also a short jacket worn mainly by women. You could dance a bolero in a bolero, because this word refers to both clothes and music. The kind of bolero you wear is a short jacket that just about comes down to the waist. A bolero is most often worn by women: except in Spain, where men wear it too. The dance is a quick-paced type of music that you could do to Ravel's famous piece, also called Bolero. Both the music and the jacket come from Spain.
Vocabulary lists containing bolero
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:
As part of Friday’s ceremony, Carlos and his bolero group Los Rebeldes Románticos performed several tunes, including the Mexican bolero classic “Sabor a Mí.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
In 2015, musician Roberto Carlos launched Boleros de Noche, an annual concert series held in Los Angeles that aimed at preserving and showcasing the Latin American bolero music genre.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Porter originally wrote it as a sultry bolero, but Sinatra and Riddle supercharge it into one of the singer’s most celebrated uptempo showcases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
The crinoline-skirted kingfisher blue gown and matching bolero jacket the Queen wore for her sister Princess Margaret's wedding in 1960 has an "incredible timeless quality", says de Guitaut.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2025
I didn’t like it, Djo, and I haven’t danced the compos bolero since.
From "Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti" by Frances Temple
So it was either that or boleros, because of my dad.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2025
She started off by performing boleros for her family, then studied to become a classically trained singer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2025
A natural fit for the girl who grew up singing corridos, boleros and mariachi, and still does to this day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2023
There was art in that family, too: Her mother, Norma, sang boleros, staged ballets with the children in the yard and painted household linens with birds and flowers.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
Sometimes a woman’s voice broke through, and then the men shouted louder, glass shattered violently, and the songs on the jukebox went from boleros about betrayal to guarachas and merengues about the good life.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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