cumbia
Americannoun
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a type of Latin American dance music of Colombian origin, similar to salsa and using guitars, accordions, bass guitar, and percussion.
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a dance performed to this music.
Etymology
Origin of cumbia
First recorded in 1860–65; from Latin American Spanish; origin uncertain
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.
But back at the camp in Los Azules, where cumbia music carries on the wind, Andres Carrizo is looking forward to a boom time.
From Barron's • May 23, 2026
It is not simply cumbia, reggaeton, alt-pop, or urbano; it carries a shoegazing moodiness, an emotional fog that makes the genre switches feel less like gimmicks and more like memories changing shape.
From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026
Hailing from Medellín, Colombia, Ruido Selecto drives forward the Caribbean rhythms of cumbia, salsa, electronic dub and Afro-diasporic styles that have been traditionally transmitted through Picós, hand-painted sound systems popular throughout the country’s coast.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 12, 2026
Brother modernized the band and the guys modernized a form of cumbia.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2025
He pulls me into the crowd and we dance a cumbia with plenty of spinning, just like the students at the colegio do during school dances.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
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.
