MTV

American

Trademark.

Music Television: a cable television subscription service featuring a format of music videos.

MTV British

abbreviation

music television: a US music channel that operates 24 hours a day

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

While MTV helped usher in the careers of a new wave of musicians, it proved disastrous for others, nobody more than Billy Squier.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026

Born in 1975 to working-class parents in Essex, east of London, Brand began his stand-up career as a teenager, eventually working as an MTV presenter and host of a reality TV series.

From Barron's • Feb. 24, 2026

Along with introducing “the Voice” to a new generation, the song earned that year’s MTV Video Music Award for breakthrough video and gave the group their highest charting hit ever.

From Salon • Feb. 14, 2026

While Martin reigned supreme on the top charts — and as his hypnotic music video circulated across the popular MTV channel — the mainstream media would zero in on more than his music.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026

Suddenly, Zlata’s focus switched from her studies and watching MTV to the closing of her school and the destruction of the national library.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023