ska

American

[skah] / skɑ /

noun

a modern style of vocalized Jamaican popular music, which emerged in the 1950s as a blend of African-Jamaican folk music, calypso, and American rhythm and blues, notable for its shuffling, scratchlike tempo and jazzlike horn riffs on the offbeat.

ska British

/ skɑː /

noun

a type of West Indian pop music of the 1960s, accented on the second and fourth beats of a four-beat bar

"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

Etymology

Origin of ska

First recorded in 1960–65; of obscure origin

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.

Mr. Cliff entered these contests early and began writing songs that were a mash of ska, rock-steady and calypso, globally popular then thanks to a string of hits by Harry Belafonte.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 24, 2025

The breeze carries no aroma of red wine or rain-soaked ska bands.

From Salon • Nov. 8, 2025

The group, who started off as a marching band in Digbeth, described themselves on their website as "Birmingham's very own second-line, jazz, funk and ska soul stew".

From BBC • Jul. 29, 2025

“It’s something about that ska beat and the drums coming in and that’s the song that the fans associate with the game,” Hawk said.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 26, 2024

They call it I-yân-ska, probably from "íya," to speak, and "ska," white, truthful, peaceful,—hence, peace-pipe, herald of peace, pledge of truth, etc.

From Legends of the Northwest by Gordon, Hanford Lennox

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