disco
noun
disco
1 American
[dis-koh]
/ ˈdɪs koʊ /
noun
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discos
plural
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a style of popular music for dancing, usually recorded and with complex electronic instrumentation, in which simple, repetitive lyrics are subordinated to a heavy, pulsating, rhythmic beat.
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any of various forms of dance, often improvisational, performed to such music.
adjective
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of or relating to a disco or disco music.
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intended for a disco or its patrons.
verb (used without object)
discoed,
discoing
disco
British
/ ˈdɪskəʊ /
noun
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an occasion at which typically young people dance to amplified pop records, usually compered by a disc jockey and featuring special lighting effects
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( as modifier )
disco dancing
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a nightclub or other public place where such dances take place
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mobile equipment, usually accompanied by a disc jockey who operates it, for providing music for a disco
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a type of dance music designed to be played in discos, with a solid thump on each beat
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( as modifier )
a disco record
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Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of disco
An Americanism dating back to 1960–65; by shortening
Explanation
Disco is music with a heavy bass beat that’s fun to dance to. The heyday of disco was 1970s America, where people wore satin bell-bottoms and big Afros and went to nightclubs and did some serious disco dancing! When you go to a disco, you can recreate some of the dance moves of the 1970s. If you need inspiration, check out the movie Saturday Night Fever and shake your hips under a giant disco ball. Disco is an American English invention from the 1960s, a shortened form of discotheque, a French word that means both "club for dancing" and also "record library." A DJ spins records, or discs, at the disco.
Vocabulary lists containing disco
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:
Cohn is perhaps most famously known as the writer behind “Saturday Night Fever,” the film that captured the disco era for a generation.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2026
Tim Smith remembers stepping out of a small nightclub beneath the Alhambra theatre after spending hours photographing a "daytimers" disco.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
The crystals and lamé of their outfits played with the light from the disco ball hanging from the ceiling.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
Photos showed dancing under disco balls, a white cake topped with figurines of a bride and groom and Donald Trump Jr. holding his new wife in his arms as fireworks erupt in the background.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
Arthur suggested one of those disco parties where you wear headphones and dance to songs of your choice.
From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Jagger, entranced by the sounds coming out of New York’s discos at the time, contributed the No. 1 “Miss You.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Lewis English, a consultant for the Acoustic Fish Deterrence Delivery Group, says the lives of 182 million fish a year are on the line and that fish discos effectively scatter their patrons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
Mr Williams added that Efan got his first DJ decks as a Christmas present when he was eight, the family having held lots of lockdown discos at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025
Ironically, in 1977, the year that Studio 54 opened its doors to a chosen few, 5,000 discos opened across the country.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
Then Mrs. Kurtz hip-bumped me, the way people did when they danced at discos in the seventies.
From "Winger" by Andrew Smith
Bill and his partner Emma Slater discoed to Cher’s “Strong Enough,” much to everyone’s amusement and horror.
From Time ● Nov. 5, 2013
The 'runners' wined and dined and discoed, and now they are back to treating us like we didn't exist.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Manhattan's Central Park, the box phe nomenon has linked up with the roller-skating craze to produce a bizarre form of discoing that not only defies description but se riously discourages it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mariana says he "is a pretty good dancer, but he would be real good if we could go discoing more often."
From Time Magazine Archive
Christina's whirl is now Manhattan, where she went discoing at Studio 54 last week with Nikos Boukis, a childhood friend whose family is also into ships.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
