hootenanny
Americannoun
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a social gathering or informal concert featuring folk singing and, sometimes, dancing.
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an informal session at which folk singers and instrumentalists perform for their own enjoyment.
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Older Use. thingamajig.
noun
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an informal performance by folk singers
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something the name of which is unspecified or forgotten
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hootenanny
First recorded in 1910–15; origin uncertain
Explanation
A hootenanny is a lively folk music party or performance. If you're invited to a hootenanny, bring your fiddle or come prepared to sing along! When hootenanny first appeared in American English, it was an informal word for "gadget," a generic placeholder like thingamajig or doodad. It came to mean "impromptu party with music" in some rural regions and was adopted in the 1940s for gatherings held by folk musicians including Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Hootenannies reached the height of popularity in the 1960s, but you can throw one today by getting together with friends to play and sing music!
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:
Overall, though, Noujaim and Gandhi would rather build their drama around Burning Man Project CEO Marian Goodell, a nice lady struggling to keep this hipster hootenanny alive.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
In 1972, Time Magazine said the holiday had become “a three-day nationwide hootenanny that seems to have lost much of its original purpose.”
From Washington Times ● May 26, 2023
Add to that mix the consistently funny Ronny Chieng and Billie Lourd, and we’ve got a hootenanny.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2023
It started when a local drum and dance group performed to honor their guests, and it quickly turned into an impromptu hootenanny.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 9, 2022
It seem like every night she and him was putting on a regular hootenanny.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
His group of merry men held meetups at coffee shops, beer halls and the zoo, hosted holiday hootenannies and even offered CPR classes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
“We had hootenannies in the apartments, 30 people sitting around singing songs by the Kingston Trio and Joan Baez.”
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2019
To pay the rent for the three-story townhouse the whole band shared at 130 West 10th Street, named the Almanac House, they performed hootenannies in the basement, rattling out unionist and anti-Hitler tunes.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2015
Dylan was especially fond of the afternoon hootenannies, calling the potpourri of performers an "extravaganza of patchwork."
From US News ● Aug. 1, 2014
There are. in fact, so many active professional folk singers that hootenannies often turn into games of king-of-the-mountain. as eager youth, male and female, storms the stage.
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.
