rock-and-roll
Americannoun
noun
-
-
a type of pop music originating in the 1950s as a blend of rhythm and blues and country and western. It is generally based upon the twelve-bar blues, the first and third beats in each bar being heavily accented
-
( as modifier )
the rock-and-roll era
-
-
dancing performed to such music, with exaggerated body movements stressing the beat
verb
Other Word Forms
- rock and roller noun
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.
Skating to “Maybe I Maybe You” by the Scorpions, Torgashev flashed the rock-and-roll symbol to the crowd as he saluted.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026
The finest rock-and-roll biographies are defined by their capacity for losing the reader inside the music.
From Salon • Jun. 16, 2025
“I’m a rabble-rouser who does humorous social commentary within a rock-and-roll setting,” he told The New York Times in 1990.
From New York Times • Feb. 8, 2024
At the time, the magazine agreed to credit photographer Goldsmith, known for portraits of rock-and-roll stars including Mick Jagger, and paid her $400 to license her 1981 black-and-white portrait as an artist reference.
From BBC • May 18, 2023
It was our little piece of rock-and-roll heaven.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
![]()
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.