highlife

American  

[hahy-lahyf] / ˈhaɪˌlaɪf /

noun

1. an expensive, glamorous, or elegant style of living.

2. a genre of dance music originating in Ghana that fuses traditional West African rhythms with elements of jazz and other Western popular music.

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highlife British  

/ ˈhaɪˌlaɪf /

noun

1. 1. a style of music combining West African elements with US jazz forms, found esp in the cities of West Africa

   2. ( as modifier )

      a highlife band

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Etymology

Origin of highlife

First recorded in 1755–65; high + life

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

highlife

Tributes have been pouring in from across Ghana and the world since the death of Ghanaian highlife legend Ebo Taylor.

From Barron's ● Feb. 9, 2026

Nigerian writer and poet Dami Ajayi described him as a "highlife maestro" and a "fantastic guitarist".

From Barron's ● Feb. 9, 2026

Ebo Taylor, the Ghanaian guitarist, composer and band leader whose work helped define the highlife genre and influenced generations of African musicians, has died at the age of 90, his family has announced.

From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2026

During the 1950s and 1960s, highlife music, pioneered by Ghanaian musicians such as ET Mensah, Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas, became a defining sound across West Africa.

From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2026

Once he’d committed himself to music in his late teens, he threw himself into Idonije’s five-digit record collection, flipping highlife, afrobeat and jazz vinyls on the turntable for hours in his garage.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2023

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