Emo

//ˈiː.moʊ// adj, name, noun, slang

adj, name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A particular style of hardcore punk rock. uncountable
  2. 2
    A person associated with that subculture and musical style. countable
  3. 3
    Any form of guitar-driven alternative rock that is particularly or notably emotional uncountable
  4. 4
    A person associated with a fashion or stereotype of that style of rock. countable
  5. 5
    A young person who is considered to be over-emotional or who is associated with the emo subculture. countable
Adjective
  1. 1
    Associated with youth subcultures which are associated with the above-mentioned musical genre(s) and with emotional sensitivity.

    "The one thing everyone agrees on is that they've never encountered a band that claimed to be emo."

  2. 2
    Emotional; sensitive. derogatory, often
  3. 3
    Depressed. informal

    "Criticism drapes a black velvet cape across the puddle that interrupts the path to change, to be emo about it."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A village in Ireland.
  2. 2
    A township in Ontario.

Synonyms

All synonyms
depressed

Example

More examples

"I wish my grass were emo, then it would cut itself."

Etymology

Clipping of emotional. Compound emocore first attested in 1986. Word emo first attested in 1988.

Related phrases

Midwest emoemo bangsemo metalemo rapalternative rock

More for "emo"

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Related Topic Clusters

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Emotional Intelligence Language

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Next best steps

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