What does "dubstep" mean?

A subgenre of electronic dance music descended from 2-step garage that was popular in the early 2010s, characterized by its dark mood, sparse half-step and two-step rhythms, and emphasis on sub-bass.

Dubstep

//ˈdʌbstɛp// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A subgenre of electronic dance music descended from 2-step garage that was popular in the early 2010s, characterized by its dark mood, sparse half-step and two-step rhythms, and emphasis on sub-bass. uncountable
""Genres are so boring," said Scotsman Broon, one-half of the tech-house duo, as he scanned the cover of XLR8R magazine hyping "Dubstep" while shopping at Etherea record store."
2
A genre of electronic music descended from 2-step garage, characterised by its dark mood, sparse, half-step and two-step rhythms, an average bpm of 140 and an emphasis on sub-bass. wordnet

Example

More examples

""Genres are so boring," said Scotsman Broon, one-half of the tech-house duo, as he scanned the cover of XLR8R magazine hyping "Dubstep" while shopping at Etherea record store."

Etymology

From dub + 2-step garage, from around 2002.

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