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  • carioca
    carioca
    noun
    a modification of the samba.
  • Carioca
    Carioca
    noun
    a native of Rio de Janeiro.

carioca

1 American  
[kar-ee-oh-kuh] / ˌkær iˈoʊ kə /

noun

  1. a modification of the samba.

  2. the music for this dance.


Carioca 2 American  
[kar-ee-oh-kuh, kah-ree-aw-kuh] / ˌkær iˈoʊ kə, ˌkɑ riˈɔ kə /

noun

  1. a native of Rio de Janeiro.


carioca British  
/ ˌkærɪˈəʊkə /

noun

  1. a Brazilian dance similar to the samba

  2. a piece of music composed for this dance

"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

Etymology

Origin of carioca1

First recorded in 1930–35; after Carioca

Origin of Carioca2

1820–30; < Brazilian Portuguese < Tupi, equivalent to cari white + oca house or boca descendant of


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:

And while Brazilian pop ambassador Anitta introduced MTV’s core audience to funk carioca, those of us at De Los were introduced to Stephen Sanchez, the California-born country star making waves in Nashville.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

Over the next few years, the sound was repurposed in a variety of new contexts, alongside cumbia, funk carioca and other styles.

From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2021

And, on Sundays, half of Rio’s waterfront highway is closed to traffic, making the distinctive orange bikes a quintessentially carioca way to reach the beach.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 5, 2019

Ms. Pinheiro is a born-and-bred carioca, as Rio natives are known, unlike Ms. Bündchen, who hails from Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, bordering Argentina and Uruguay.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2016

The music ended, and a voice announced in laboriously classic Portuguese, with only a trace of the guttural tonation of the carioca, that the most important news items of the day would be given.

From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930 by Harry Bates

At the famed Casa Carioca nightclub in southern Germany, I danced one memorable night away.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 2, 2024

Police said they plan to occupy other nearby favelas, such as Manguinhos, Bandeira 2 and Conjunto Morar Carioca.

From Reuters ● Jan. 19, 2022

In the city of Pará de Minas, authorities were monitoring the Carioca hydroelectric dam amid concerns it could burst.

From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2022

She created stars like Tahia Carioca, the “Arab Marilyn Monroe,” who was married 14 times and famously slapped Egypt’s King Farouk when he threw an ice cube down her dress.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2019

The swift air-currents at the beginning of a tropic thunderstorm were here multiplied in trickiness and velocity by the hills of the Serra da Carioca, and Bell was flying blind as well.

From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930 by Harry Bates

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