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• hard rock
  hard rock

  noun

  the original form of rock-'n'-roll, basically dependent on a consistently loud and strong beat.
• hard-rock
  hard-rock

  adjective

  (loosely) of or relating to igneous or metamorphic rocks, as in mining hard-rock mining and geology hard-rock geology.

hard rock

¹ American  

noun

• hard rocks
  plural

1. the original form of rock-'n'-roll, basically dependent on a consistently loud and strong beat.

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hard-rock ² American  

[hahrd-rok] / ˈhɑrdˌrɒk /

adjective

1. (loosely) of or relating to igneous or metamorphic rocks, as in mining hard-rock mining and geology hard-rock geology.

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hard rock British  

noun

1. music a rhythmically simple and usually highly amplified style of rock and roll

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hard rocker
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hard rocks
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of hard rock¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Origin of hard-rock²

First recorded in 1920–25

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hard rock hard-rock

Midwest audiences loved our combination of dark theater and hard rock.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Anderson was the most veteran member of Rose Tattoo, a hard rock and blues band that formed in Sydney in 1976.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Companies are developing drilling equipment that is more stable when breaking through hard rock at high temperatures.

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

Even so, they believe S3E could become a viable alternative to evaporation ponds and hard rock mining, which currently dominate global lithium production despite their environmental drawbacks.

From Science Daily ● May 23, 2026

My heart became a cold, hard rock against his words.

From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon

He played football for his school team, devoured Harry Potter and Percy Jackson novels, loved science-fiction films and spent hours teaching himself hard-rock guitar riffs.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

The creative team never set out to replicate the hard-rock sound that defined “Queen of the Damned.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026

Like many of Brazil’s rare-earth deposits, Viridis’s reserves are found in clay, which executives say is cheaper and easier to process than the hard-rock deposits common in Australia and elsewhere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

Formed in 1969, the Irish hard-rock band released five unsuccessful albums in a row, starting in 1971.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026

Mixed in with all the college students and farm boys and out- of-work loggers, there were grizzled hard-rock miners from all over the West.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

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