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• hard rock
  hard rock

  noun

  the original form of rock-'n'-roll, basically dependent on a consistently loud and strong beat.
• hard-rock
  hard-rock

  adjective

  (loosely) of or relating to igneous or metamorphic rocks, as in mining hard-rock mining and geology hard-rock geology.

hard rock

¹ American  

noun

hard rocks plural

1. the original form of rock-'n'-roll, basically dependent on a consistently loud and strong beat.

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hard-rock ² American  

[hahrd-rok] / ˈhɑrdˌrɒk /

adjective

1. (loosely) of or relating to igneous or metamorphic rocks, as in mining hard-rock mining and geology hard-rock geology.

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hard rock British  

noun

1. music a rhythmically simple and usually highly amplified style of rock and roll

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hard rocker
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hard rocks
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hard rock¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Origin of hard-rock²

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hard rock hard-rock

Their music was a blend of blues rock and hard rock with elements of cabaret.

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

Solovyov, 67, a hard rock fan, still wears his hair long, though it has turned grey.

From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026

Most of the fossil remains encased in hard rock, and manually removing it could take years.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 1, 2026

Pop culture seemed ready to welcome back a breed of hitmaker thought lost to time — the sleeve-tatted, throat-shredding hard rock star.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026

‘We’ve done it! We’ve escaped from the Emyn Muil! And now what next, I wonder? Maybe we shall soon be sighing for good hard rock under foot again.’

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Like many of Brazil’s rare-earth deposits, Viridis’s reserves are found in clay, which executives say is cheaper and easier to process than the hard-rock deposits common in Australia and elsewhere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

With Mr. Frampton wailing on guitar, “Doobie Wah” has a hard-rock core but a rollicking Doobie Brothers feel akin to that group’s 1972 hit “Listen to the Music.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 19, 2026

Ace Frehley, who played lead guitar as a founding member of the face-painted, blood-spitting, fire-breathing hard-rock band Kiss, died Thursday in Morristown, N.J.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025

The drummer and lyricist for beloved Canadian hard-rock trio Rush was widely considered one of rock’s most skilled instrumentalists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2025

Mixed in with all the college students and farm boys and out- of-work loggers, there were grizzled hard-rock miners from all over the West.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown