jazzy
Americanadjective
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pertaining to or suggestive of jazz music.
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Informal. active or lively.
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Informal. fancy or flashy.
a jazzy sweater.
adjective
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of, characteristic of, or resembling jazz music
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gaudy or flashy
a jazzy car
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of jazzy
Explanation
Anything that sounds like jazz music, or in other ways reminds you of jazz, is jazzy. The spirited, toe-tapping version of "Happy Birthday" you sing to your grandpa might be described as jazzy. There are jazzy covers of staid songs, or jazzy ensembles that bring some elements of jazz to whatever they're playing. You can also use this adjective to describe something that's fancy in a flashy or ostentatious way: "She wore a long, jazzy gown that was covered in glittering sequins." Jazzy, coined around 1919, comes from jazz, which probably stems from the Creole slang jass, "strenuous activity."
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:
Mr. Mangum plays drums on “Timewaster,” whose horn-led arrangement conjures the jazzy color of early Blood, Sweat & Tears.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
Passages that sound overtly jazzy are few and fleeting in this collection; folk and classical influences are more frequent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
Built around a stuttering, jazzy chord progression, Stand On It was one of the standouts on KWN's debut EP, With All Due Respect, released last June.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
This playlist is mostly a mix of jazzy downtempo electronica like Jerry Paper’s “Grey Area” or the Mild High Club’s “Windowpane,” the latter of which has one of my favorite intros of all time.
From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2026
Then I turn on the drum and cha-cha beats, and I move into a jazzy, funky piece that I’ve been working on.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
By contrast, Davis conjures a prickly dynamic with Boseman as Levee, whose youthful arrogance and newer, jazzier style represent a looming threat to Ma’s authority.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2020
We’ve grown used to jazzier adjectives — hilarious, awesome, amazing, absolute genius.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2019
Nic is the jazzier part, the one full of vertiginous highs and gutter-licking lows, though anyone who has read Tweak may wonder where the grittier specifics have gone.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 13, 2018
They found that bowheads — the bigger, more blubbery cousins of the better known humpbacks — are more prolific and downright jazzier than other whales.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 3, 2018
Why not select a more cheerful subject and adopt a jazzier style—we of today would reject Milton’s Paradise Lost.
From Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant by Mathew Joseph Holt
The jazziest of his three entries consists of regular arrays of horizontal segments, but he varies the width of the lines and the spaces between them to create a sense of pulsating motion.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 20, 2021
If Louis Armstrong established and defined jazz as a soloist’s art, then even at the start, at their jazziest, the Necks weren’t playing jazz.
From New York Times ● Oct. 4, 2017
The long finale, Sailing Westwards, has the jazziest passages, but also hints at an exultant, rhumba-like party mood.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 14, 2012
One of the jazziest is called "Trafalgar Square" and it makes abstract music out of urban commotion.
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2010
Bergstrom's two-piece orchestra was in the throes of its jazziest fox-trot number.
From Half Portions by Edna Ferber
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