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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.

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ska

"I was born in Jamaica, so that's in my blood and my DNA - ska music," added Golding.

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026

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 result was a steady shift in the music-rich island from joyous ska and soulful rock-steady to reggae, a more brooding genre that addressed social and personal issues.

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

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

From The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems by Hanford Lennox Gordon

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