Breakdancing
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An urban style of acrobatic street dance that originated in the hip hop culture of New York City in the late 20th century. uncountable
"Hollywood made movies about breakdancing, dancers performed at the White House and the sky seemed the limit."
Example
More examples"Tom declined a full scholarship and went to study breakdancing in Brazil."
Etymology
From break + dancing. Influenced by breakdown (the percussion break of songs chosen by a DJ for use in hip-hop music) -- breakdancers were originally those who danced to a breakdown.
Related phrases
More for "breakdancing"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.