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• dada
  dada

  noun

  the style and techniques of a group of artists, writers, etc., of the early 20th century who exploited accidental and incongruous effects in their work and who programmatically challenged established canons of art, thought, morality, etc.
• Dada
  Dada

  noun

  a nihilistic artistic movement of the early 20th century in W Europe and the US, founded on principles of irrationality, incongruity, and irreverence towards accepted aesthetic criteria

dada

American  

[dah-dah] / ˈdɑ dɑ /

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

1. the style and techniques of a group of artists, writers, etc., of the early 20th century who exploited accidental and incongruous effects in their work and who programmatically challenged established canons of art, thought, morality, etc.

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Dada British  

/ ˈdɑːdɑːˌɪzəm, ˈdɑːdɑː /

noun

1. a nihilistic artistic movement of the early 20th century in W Europe and the US, founded on principles of irrationality, incongruity, and irreverence towards accepted aesthetic criteria

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Other Word Forms

• Dadaist
  noun
• dadaism
  noun
• dadaist
  noun
• Dadaistic
  adjective
• dadaistic
  adjective
• Dadaistically
  adverb
• dadaistically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of dada

1915–20; < French: hobby horse, childish reduplication of da giddyap

Explanation

Dada is another way to say "daddy" or "papa," a nickname for your father. The word dada is also the name of an early 20th-century art movement that protested conventional ideas using humor and absurdity. Across most cultures, dada is an extremely common first word (or sound) spoken by babies. In English, this is usually translated as "dad" or "daddy," and it sometimes continues to be a young child's name for their father. The avant-garde art movement took the word as its name, often capitalized as Dada, from its silly, innocent sound and multiple meanings (including "rocking horse" in French and "yes, yes" in Romanian). Ironically, this art movement was intentionally anti-art, with Dadaist artists claiming that "Dada means nothing."

Example Sentences

Mingling Cubism, Dada, abstraction, Constructivism and Surrealism, he occupied his own avant-garde stronghold.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 27, 2025

"Travesties" two years later, imagined a meeting between Lenin, James Joyce and poet and founder of the Dada movement Tristan Tzara, who all lived in Zurich in 1917.

From Barron's • Nov. 29, 2025

Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero told South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper that he wanted to use the buildings for the "public good", like accommodating around 300,000 people on the housing waiting list.

From BBC • Jun. 1, 2025

Hopps was a wealth of information about Dada godfather Marcel Duchamp, whose now legendary 1963 retrospective he had organized for the Pasadena Art Museum.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2025

Dada nodded and smiled while Abay lowered her scarf from around her mouth.

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai