Lo-fi

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A subgenre of hip-hop that includes traditional jazz elements and drum machine samples. uncountable

    "The drum beats in lo-fi music sound so cute!"

  2. 2
    A subgenre of rock music characterized by minimal production, giving a raw and unsophisticated sound. uncountable
Adjective
  1. 1
    Having an old-fashioned quality, as if recorded with primitive equipment.
  2. 2
    Having a rough quality, not musically smooth and refined.

    "cute-sounding lo-fi drum beats"

  3. 3
    Recorded at home with makeshift tools.

Synonyms

All synonyms
no fidelity

Example

More examples

"The genre name originates from the low fidelity ("lo-fi") aesthetic of the music, which tends to be deliberately less "polished" than high fidelity ("hi-fi") music and features audio imperfections, distorted sound quality, and less professional audio equipment."

Etymology

Shortened form of low fidelity.

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