jazz

American  

[jaz] / dʒæz /

noun

1. music originating in New Orleans around the beginning of the 20th century and subsequently developing through various increasingly complex styles, generally marked by intricate, propulsive rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, improvisatory, virtuosic solos, melodic freedom, and a harmonic idiom ranging from simple diatonicism through chromaticism to atonality.

2. a style of dance music, popular especially in the 1920s, arranged for a large band and marked by some of the features of jazz.

3. dancing or a dance performed to such music, as with violent bodily motions and gestures.

4. Slang. liveliness; spirit; excitement.

5. Slang. insincere, exaggerated, or pretentious talk.

   Don't give me any of that jazz about your great job!

6. Slang. similar or related but unspecified things, activities, etc..

   He goes for fishing and all that jazz.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of jazz.

verb (used with object)

1. to play (music) in the manner of jazz.

2. Informal.

   1. to excite or enliven.

   2. to accelerate.

3. Slang: Vulgar. to copulate with.

verb (used without object)

1. to dance to jazz music.

2. to play or perform jazz music.

3. Informal. to act or proceed with great energy or liveliness.

4. Slang: Vulgar. to copulate.

verb phrase

1. jazz up

   1. to add liveliness, vigor, or excitement to.

   2. to add ornamentation, color, or extra features to, in order to increase appeal or interest; embellish.

   3. to accelerate.

jazz British  

/ dʒæz /

noun

1. 1. a kind of music of African-American origin, characterized by syncopated rhythms, solo and group improvisation, and a variety of harmonic idioms and instrumental techniques. It exists in a number of styles Compare blues See also bebop bop 1 Dixieland free hard bop harmolodics mainstream modern jazz New Orleans jazz swing trad

   2. ( as modifier )

      a jazz band

   3. ( in combination )

      a jazzman

2. informal enthusiasm or liveliness

3. slang rigmarole; paraphernalia

   legal papers and all that jazz

4. slang sexual intercourse

5. slang a dance

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verb

1. (intr) to play or dance to jazz music

2. slang to have sexual intercourse with (a person)

jazz Cultural  

1. A form of American music that grew out of African-Americans' musical traditions at the beginning of the twentieth century. Jazz is generally considered a major contribution of the United States to the world of music. It quickly became a form of dance music, incorporating a “big beat” and solos by individual musicians. For many years, all jazz was improvised and taught orally, and even today jazz solos are often improvised. Over the years, the small groups of the original jazz players evolved into the “Big Bands” (led, for example, by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller), and finally into concert ensembles. Other famous jazz musicians include Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, and Ella Fitzgerald.

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Other Word Forms

• jazzer
  noun

Etymology

Origin of jazz

1905–10, 1915–20 jazz for def. 5; origin uncertain

Explanation

Jazz, a form of instrumental and vocal music characterized by syncopated rhythms and informal improvisation, has been called America's only original art form. If you've ever listened to Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, or Thelonious Monk, jazz is what you're hearing. The term jazz originated not with music, but in baseball, where it was used as a synonym for "pep, vim, vigor." It began to be used to describe music about a decade after jazz first began to be played in 1900 New Orleans. Since then, like the art form it describes, jazz has changed and expanded its meaning. Today, jazz can refer to a genre of dance, to the act of "sprucing something up," to the decade of the 1920s (nicknamed The Jazz Age), or to holding your hands above your head and waving your fingers, making jazz hands.

Example Sentences

Coltrane dominated the 1960s and died in 1967 just as acoustic jazz began to lose its luster in the U.S. with the advent of jazz rock and electronic jazz fusion.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 26, 2026

Rollins survived virtually all of his contemporaries from the 1950s and ’60s, the period in which the fundamental elements of the contemporary jazz that followed for the next half-century were established.

From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2026

He went on to play with many leading jazz artists including Art Blakey, Bud Powell and Miles Davis.

From BBC • May 26, 2026

Sonny Rollins, the "Saxophone Colossus" whose hard-charging yet flowingly meditative works made him the last in a golden era of jazz greats, died Monday.

From Barron's • May 26, 2026

For a comprehensive audiovisual overview of jazz, try Ken Burns' PBS documentary.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones