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:
With its surging choruses and humorous arias and recitatives, to say nothing of its jazzy harmonies and dance rhythms, it possesses an irresistible satiric edge while still evoking American certitude amid Cold War challenges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 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
And what about those jazzy plastic strakes framing the gloss-black crossbar?
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
His favorite is 1984’s jazzy “2:00 AM Paradise Cafe,” on which he collaborated with Mulligan, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Tormé.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
This old, jazzy song my dad likes called “Stars Fell on Alabama.”
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
But a week after beginning her studies at Ailey, she realized that she preferred traditional ballet to Ailey’s jazzier contemporary style.
From New York Times ● Oct. 8, 2022
She delivers on the daring promise of her prizewinning debut, “The Old Drift,” while teasing out a jazzier, more intimate register, casting a spell that probes the fluid, disorienting flow of grief.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 3, 2022
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
In 2016, “Blackstar,” made with a jazzier band, sounded like nothing he had done before and was stronger than anything he had released in years.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 29, 2017
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 Holt, Mathew Joseph
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
Mr. Feinstein was in the jazziest, punchiest mode I’ve found him in the four year since his 2008 album, “The Sinatra Project.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2012
His 35th solo studio album is his jazziest: the warm brass and catchy, sweet melodies recall 1970's Moondance.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 27, 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 Ferber, Edna
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.
