jazz

Pronunciation: /d͡ʒæz/

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk
  2. noun a genre of popular music that originated in New Orleans around 1900 and developed through increasingly complex styles
  3. noun a style of dance music popular in the 1920s; similar to New Orleans jazz but played by large bands

Etymology

Unknown. First attested around 1912 in a discussion of baseball; attested in reference to music around 1915. Numerous references suggest that the term may be connected to jasm and jism.

In classic literature

Synonyms

wind, malarkey, malarky, idle words, nothingness

Semantic network

Broader (hypernyms)
talk

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