flamenco
Americannoun
-
flamencos
plural
-
a style of dancing, characteristic of the Andalusian Roma, that is strongly rhythmic and involves vigorous actions, as clapping the hands and stamping the feet.
-
a style of instrumental or vocal music originating in southern Spain and typically of an intensely rhythmic, improvisatory character, performed by itself or as an accompaniment to flamenco dancing.
adjective
noun
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a type of dance music for vocal soloist and guitar, characterized by elaborate melody and sad mood
-
the dance performed to such music
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of flamenco
First recorded in 1895–1900; from Spanish flamenco “pertaining to the Andalusian Roma,” literally, Fleming 1 (in the sense “a native of Flanders”); the sense shift is variously explained
Vocabulary lists containing flamenco
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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:
Raised near Barcelona, she fell under the spell of flamenco, a centuries-old musical tradition with songs driven by little more than handclaps and intricate acoustic guitar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
She devoted an entire year to the lyrics alone, singing in 14 languages, over music that sits at the lesser explored intersection of classical, flamenco and avant-pop.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025
He became one of the most convincing early proponents of the world music movement, readily fitting in tabla with flamenco as well as with African, Indonesian , Afro-Cuban, you-name-it drumming.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
At Amama's headquarters in the city of Seville, a mosaic promoting self-examinations and leaflets advertising flamenco classes to fight the side effects of chemotherapy welcome breast cancer sufferers.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
The padded door banged open and a young boy clicked into the bar, scraping the metal taps on his flamenco boots across the floor.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Then I started meeting other flamencos and got turned on to their music and their history and seeing how that connected to my universe.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2016
She swirled in flamencos, glided through a waltz, and in the purple breeches of a matador climaxed a gymnastic bullfight on pointes as delicately as a Russian ballerina.
From Time Magazine Archive
Since then, life has been a dizzying, prosperous round of flamencos on movie sets, stages and nightclub floors.
From Time Magazine Archive
Don Francisco's maid screeched flamencos and his dog howled.
From Time Magazine Archive
The strumming of flamencos on a brae Were not more singular.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
