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• techno
  techno

  noun

  a style of disco music characterized by very fast synthesizer rhythms, heavy use of samples, and a lack of melody.
• techno-
  techno-

  a combining form borrowed from Greek where it meant “art,” “skill,” used in the formation of compound words with the meaning “technique,” “technology,” etc..

techno

¹ American  

[tek-noh] / ˈtɛk noʊ /

noun

1. a style of disco music characterized by very fast synthesizer rhythms, heavy use of samples, and a lack of melody.

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techno- ² American  

1. a combining form borrowed from Greek where it meant “art,” “skill,” used in the formation of compound words with the meaning “technique,” “technology,” etc..

   technography.

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techno- ¹ British  

combining form

1. craft or art

   technology

   technography

2. technological or technical

   technocracy

3. relating to or using technology

   technophobia

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techno ² British  

/ ˈtɛknəʊ /

noun

1. a type of very fast dance music, using electronic sounds and fast heavy beats

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Etymology

Origin of techno¹

First recorded in 1985–90

Origin of techno-²

Combining form representing Greek téchnē art, skill. See technic

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

techno techno-

The city’s music, famed for rough-hewn virtuosity from blues to soul to techno, is the spring that waters “Adversity.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

Organisers have cancelled the four-day techno music festival Defqon.1 in Biddinghuizen in the central Netherlands, scheduled to start on Thursday, its director Sander Bijlstra told the ANP news agency.

From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026

Around the time Corriveau and Corley were seeing traction with the early iteration of their dual restaurant-and-arcade concept, a cultural phenomenon rose in nascent techno and house scenes of cities from Detroit to Ibiza: raves.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026

I would be sad if it sounded like techno, but I’d get used to it.

From Salon ● Jun. 8, 2026

“Are we really slow dancing to this random techno song?”

From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli

But this does not mean, as shortsighted critics insist, that striving to send humans to live and work in space must be an escapist techno- fantasy abdicating our stewardship over Earth.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 19, 2022

In an age of space exploration, robotics and cyborgs, the techno- thriller is only beginning to make its mark.

From Time Magazine Archive

Several hundred young hedonists join him in dancing wild tribal stomps as strobe lights flash and 50,000 watts of techno- house music blast from the speakers of a New York City nightclub called the Shelter.

From Time Magazine Archive

The debate over how to handle the problem pits the freewheeling techno- cowboys of the computer and telecommunications industries against traditional advocates for the poor.

From Time Magazine Archive

The NBS is a veritable techno- logical benchmark to which everyone agrees, if for no other reason than convenience.

From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau