call-and-response

[ kawl-uhn-ri-spons ]

adjective
  1. noting or pertaining to a style of singing in which a melody sung by one singer is responded to or echoed by one or more singers.

  2. noting or pertaining to rapid, spontaneous verbal and nonverbal interaction between speaker and listener, in which all statements are punctuated by expressions from the listener.

nounAlso call and response .
  1. call-and-response singing.

  2. call-and-response interaction between speaker and listener.

Origin of call-and-response

1
First recorded in 1820–30

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use call-and-response in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for call-and-response

call-and-response

noun
  1. a form of interaction between a speaker and one or more listeners, in which every utterance of the speaker elicits a verbal or non-verbal response from the listener or listeners

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012