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• dada
  dada

  noun

  the style and techniques of a group of artists, writers, etc., of the early 20th century who exploited accidental and incongruous effects in their work and who programmatically challenged established canons of art, thought, morality, etc.
• Dada
  Dada

  noun

  a nihilistic artistic movement of the early 20th century in W Europe and the US, founded on principles of irrationality, incongruity, and irreverence towards accepted aesthetic criteria

dada

American  

[dah-dah] / ˈdɑ dɑ /

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

1. the style and techniques of a group of artists, writers, etc., of the early 20th century who exploited accidental and incongruous effects in their work and who programmatically challenged established canons of art, thought, morality, etc.

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Dada British  

/ ˈdɑːdɑː /

noun

1. a nihilistic artistic movement of the early 20th century in W Europe and the US, founded on principles of irrationality, incongruity, and irreverence towards accepted aesthetic criteria

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Other Word Forms

• Dadaist
  noun
• dadaism
  noun
• dadaist
  noun
• Dadaistic
  adjective
• dadaistic
  adjective
• Dadaistically
  adverb
• dadaistically
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of dada

1915–20; < French: hobby horse, childish reduplication of da giddyap

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Explanation

Dada is another way to say "daddy" or "papa," a nickname for your father. The word dada is also the name of an early 20th-century art movement that protested conventional ideas using humor and absurdity. Across most cultures, dada is an extremely common first word (or sound) spoken by babies. In English, this is usually translated as "dad" or "daddy," and it sometimes continues to be a young child's name for their father. The avant-garde art movement took the word as its name, often capitalized as Dada, from its silly, innocent sound and multiple meanings (including "rocking horse" in French and "yes, yes" in Romanian). Ironically, this art movement was intentionally anti-art, with Dadaist artists claiming that "Dada means nothing."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dada Dada

Mr Currie's show, Shtoom, is described on the theatre website as a "unique, surrealist, dada punk-clown, non-verbal experience".

From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2024

I mentioned in the book that I knew two words for as long as I can remember, along with "mama" and "dada."

From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2022

With no resonating chamber in the throat, they can manage little beyond mama, dada, ga-ga.

From New York Times ● Feb. 10, 2021

Now they won’t have their daddy and sister here to teach them, and that is truly a loss, I do not understand what I’m so thankful Kobe heard Coco say dada.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2020

He didn’t care whether Emilia and her dada were safe.

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer

In July this year, an alleged Ghanaian fraudster, popularly known as Dada Joe Remix, was extradited to the US for using romance and inheritance schemes to defraud Americans.

From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025

"Travesties" two years later, imagined a meeting between Lenin, James Joyce and poet and founder of the Dada movement Tristan Tzara, who all lived in Zurich in 1917.

From Barron's ● Nov. 29, 2025

Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero said at the time that the city was "ready to host the G20".

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2025

“City of Joburg is as ready as it will ever be for G20 Summit,” said a spokeswoman for Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2025

If cooking is an art, I think we're in our Dada phase.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

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