Highlife

name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A genre of music that originated in Ghana in the early 20th century, blending elements of traditional Akan music with Western instruments and ideas. uncountable

    "Anwar took the broom away from the Congolese cleaner – whose name I did not know, whose name no one ever thought to ask – and made her dance with him, to some highlife he had going on the transistor radio he carried everywhere."

  2. 2
    the activity of excessive spending wordnet
  3. 3
    A work or performance in this style. countable

    "Then he left the stage and listened to us playing highlifes."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A Life-like cellular automaton with the rule B36/S23.
  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of Highlife. alt-of

Example

More examples

"Anwar took the broom away from the Congolese cleaner – whose name I did not know, whose name no one ever thought to ask – and made her dance with him, to some highlife he had going on the transistor radio he carried everywhere."

Etymology

From high + life.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.