breakdancing

noun

break·​danc·​ing ˈbrāk-ˌdan(t)-siŋ 

variants or break dancing or less commonly break-dancing

: a style of hip-hop dance in which soloists perform acrobatic moves that often involve touching various parts of the body (such as the back or head) to the ground

Breakdancing takes incredible athleticism and energy, but it's also personal and highly artistic …

—Jessica Mason

The sweat suit became a B-boy uniform partly because disco gear did not lend itself to the gymnastics of break dancing.

—Tony Karon

The Rock Steady Crew popularized break-dancing in the early 1980s, thanks to troupe member Richard Colón—dubbed "Crazy Legs" for his acrobatic feats.

—Raquel Laneri

With enough space to move, dancers … combine hip-hop and breakdancing moves with their own variations to produce their own unique forms of movement.

—Kevin Griffin

called also breakdance, breaking, B-boying

Examples of breakdancing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The back-up dancers captured interpretive elements of Carrión’s discography and demonstrated their skill and strength while performing gravity-defying breakdancing numbers and theatrical battle scenes. —Rosy Alvarez, Rolling Stone, 6 Sep. 2025

The street entertainment will include hand-pan music, breakdancing and performer Sarah Beth Nelson, who will create custom blessings and curses on handmade paper for patrons, Daily said. —Domenica Bongiovanni, IndyStar, 13 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

break entry 2 (in sense "solo instrumental passage") + dancing (from dance entry 1 + -ing entry 1); from the performance of acrobatic dances during a cued series of instrumental breaks in pop songs

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for breakdancing

• advancing
• enhancing
• entrancing
• financing
• romancing
• chancing
• dancing
• glancing
• lancing
• prancing
• refinancing