mento

American  

[men-toh] / ˈmɛn toʊ /

noun

1. Music. a genre of Jamaican acoustic folk music prominent from the 1930s to 1950s, having African origins with European and Trinidadian influences and featuring songs with light-hearted or witty lyrics.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mento

As a child, he was captivated by local music after hearing a neighbor’s sound system playing mento, a Jamaican folk style.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025

Ska was born as Jamaican dance music, first played in the 1950s, that combined the Caribbean sounds of mento and calypso with the imported R&B that was popular in Black America at the time.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 17, 2021

A stream of gifted Jamaican musicians cycled through mento to calypso, jazz, rhythm and blues, and ska.

From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2016

Back at Geejam, the Jolly Boys, local legends "discovered" by the Flynns more than half a century ago—perform regular mento sets when not touring Europe and Asia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2013

—The poet Gray, writing to his friend Mr. West, asks him to guess where the following description of a dimple is found: "Sigilla in mento inpressa Amoris digitulo Vestigio demonstrant mollitudinem."

From Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 95, August 23, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various