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.

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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

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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.)

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Etymology

Origin of Jazz Age

An Americanism dating back to 1920–25

Example Sentences

Controversy at the Smithsonian, a Jazz Age caper from Thomas Pynchon, Rome’s long history and more.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 3, 2025

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

The staging, which can seem cluttered and breathless in the early going, traipses through these seedy locales with a theatrical swiftness that captures the milieu that bred the syncopated rhythm of the Jazz Age.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 4, 2024

It was the start of the Jazz Age.

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