Breakbeat

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A form of syncopated rhythm prominent in much African music. countable

    "A cornucopia of hyped-up breakbeats, keyboard squiggles, surf grooves, dancehall stylee, dumb loops and much atonal shouting along, Far In dares you not to smile."

  2. 2
    A genre of electronic dance music based on such syncopated rhythms. uncountable

Example

More examples

"A cornucopia of hyped-up breakbeats, keyboard squiggles, surf grooves, dancehall stylee, dumb loops and much atonal shouting along, Far In dares you not to smile."

Etymology

From break + beat.

Related phrases

electronic dance music

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