Jump To:

• Jazz Age
  Jazz Age

  noun

  the period that in the U.S. extended roughly from the Armistice of 1918 to the stock-market crash of 1929 and was notable for increased prosperity, liberated or hedonistic social behavior, Prohibition and the concomitant rise in production and consumption of bootleg liquor, and the development and dissemination of jazz and ragtime and associated ballroom dances.
• jazz age
  jazz age

  noun

  (often capitals) (esp in the US) the period between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Depression during which jazz became popular

Jazz Age

American  

noun

1. the period that in the U.S. extended roughly from the Armistice of 1918 to the stock-market crash of 1929 and was notable for increased prosperity, liberated or hedonistic social behavior, Prohibition and the concomitant rise in production and consumption of bootleg liquor, and the development and dissemination of jazz and ragtime and associated ballroom dances.

---

jazz age British  

noun

1. (often capitals) (esp in the US) the period between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Depression during which jazz became popular

---

Jazz Age Cultural  

1. The 1920s in the United States, a decade marked not only by the popularity of jazz, but also by attacks on convention in many areas of American life. (See flappers and Roaring Twenties.)

---

Etymology

Origin of Jazz Age

An Americanism dating back to 1920–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Jazz Age jazz age

As such, the book serves as a buoyant yearbook for the Jazz Age and is alive with the slogans, social rituals, events and scandals that had so recently captivated America.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Chicagoans referred to the neighborhood as “Towertown,” and it was where writers, artists, communist revolutionaries and queer folks often lived and even more frequently partied during Chicago’s rowdy Jazz Age.

From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2025

Recently he seemed to suggest that the Jazz Age gangster Al Capone was still alive.

From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2024

“Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood,” by Fatima Shaik, provides a fascinating look at the city from the slavery era through the Jazz Age.

From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2024

It was the start of the Jazz Age.

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

The desire for a new jazz age is a wish for a new national identity as glamorous and unassailable as old Hollywood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026

Tramps and mavericks, the object of each other’s affection, enraptured with each other and creating an alliance — ignoring all the ages of man, the golden age, electronic age, age of anxiety, the jazz age.

From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2022

Waller-Bridge played Leila Arden in a murder thriller set amidst the privilege and emptiness of the jazz age.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2019

Jennifer Lawrence is set to play Zelda Fitzgerald in a biopic of the jazz age icon, socialite and novelist.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 21, 2016

The historic transformation of music in the jazz age was enabling an equally historic, admittedly embryonic, social transformation.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall