conga
Americannoun
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congas
plural
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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)
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congas,
present (3rd person singular)
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congaed,
past participle, past
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congaing
present participle
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.
See Examples For:
The chain’s executives are hoping that those planned visits will include paying $20 to $40 a ticket to join the conga line and throwing down at the bar.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
Time will tell, but for now Californians — and most of America — are stuck doing the same old clock-face conga on Sunday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2026
In no time, there were conga lines and limbo contests, and by the wee hours, someone always ended up at the emergency room and at least one marriage was in peril.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
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
We could barely hear each other over the crisp staccato pounding of the conga drums and the shrill brass sections blaring from their stereo.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
Within minutes, Mars sat behind a pair of bright red congas for Cha Cha, signalling the start of a set that moved between R&B, funk, Latin influences and pop.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
“Let There Be Love” finds the drummer using his hands on his tom-toms to make them sound like congas, giving the track an Erroll Garner flavor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
Drawing from the canon of vintage rap, “Tranky Funky” gallops forward to the sound of congas, chunky piano chords, wah-wah guitars and a nod to Mobb Deep.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2024
From the sidewalk outside El Fogón, you can see the twin rotisseries slowly spinning in place, the skewers stacked high and wide until they look like congas.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 15, 2023
There were album covers, Joe Cuba’s congas, guitar picks, ticket stubs, all from salsa’s golden days in the sixties and seventies.
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
Schweini should suffer no repeat tonight: these days opponents crumble in front of him, rather than congaing behind him.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 7, 2010
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.
