conga
Americannoun
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Also called conga line. a Cuban ballroom dance that consists of three steps forward followed by a kick, characteristically performed by a group following a leader in a single line.
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the music for this dance.
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Also called conga drum. a tall, conical, Afro-Cuban drum played with the hands.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a Latin American dance of three steps and a kick to each bar, usually performed by a number of people in single file
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Also called: conga drum. a large tubular bass drum, used chiefly in Latin American and funk music and played with the hands
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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congasimple
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congassimple
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have congaedperfect
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has congaedperfect
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am congaingprogressive
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are congaingprogressive
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is congaingprogressive
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have been congaingperfect progressive
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has been congaingperfect progressive
Past
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congaedsimple
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had congaedperfect
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was congaingprogressive
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were congaingprogressive
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had been congaingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of conga
First recorded in 1930–35; from Cuban Spanish
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.
This neighbor ended up teaching young Melvin to play conga drums and introduced him to his first bass teacher.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Sometimes, as has been documented in a BBC series narrated by David Attenborough, they swap shells in a conga line, in which each crab puts on a shell discarded by a larger companion.
From Slate • Aug. 19, 2025
Celebrations included conga lines, bubble machines, dolphins swimming in the ocean alongside them, and sunsets burning orange on the horizon.
From BBC • May 11, 2025
The festival has been running since 2019, and hosts a mullet contest, conga dancing and a range of hairdressers on site.
From BBC • May 13, 2024
It’s not their bodies inching closer that make me nervous, it’s their words that sound just like the heavy bass music—hard and fast like too-loud conga drums.
From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
