disco

1 of 3

noun

dis·​co ˈdi-(ˌ)skō How to pronounce disco (audio)
plural discos
1
: a nightclub for dancing to live and recorded music
2
: popular dance music characterized by hypnotic rhythm, repetitive lyrics, and electronically produced sounds

disco

2 of 3

verb

discoed; discoing; discos

intransitive verb

: to dance to disco music

disco-

3 of 3

combining form

see disc-

Examples of disco in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Donning pastel-colored dresses, the mother-daughter duo posed next to each other and held up a disco ball for some cute snaps. Hannah Sacks, Peoplemag, 24 Nov. 2023 Inside the disco, the dance floor was filled with guests of all ages from beginning to end. Alexandra MacOn, Vogue, 8 Nov. 2023 All this said, with its disco beats, hi-hat rhythms, full string sections, and deeply personal narrative, Russell’s The Returner is a new lodestar in the Americana space that’s certain to make its impact felt widely in the next few years. Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 31 Oct. 2023 Showrooms across the globe play host to first dates, birthday parties, epic games, disco naps and an eye-rolling amount of pranks. Mariella Rudi, Los Angeles Times, 26 Oct. 2023 The storytelling is layered with snippets of movement and dance, as when Poirier and Keegan-Dolan re-enact a happy-awkward dance at an Irish disco in the ’80s, while bullies hurl insults from the sidelines. Marina Harss, New York Times, 20 Oct. 2023 Head-to-toe metallic outfits that promise to answer every single party season dress code, and even give the disco ball a run for its money. Georgia Trodd, Glamour, 10 Nov. 2023 It was covered with circular pieces of mirror, like a D.I.Y. cowboy disco ball. Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2023 Outside the disco, guests could take midnight tours of the museum on their own, and the garden was lit and decorated with outdoor furniture for guests to lounge on between breaks from the dance floor. Alexandra MacOn, Vogue, 8 Nov. 2023
Verb
Here, the soundtrack is just as important—and eclectic—as the drinks, switching seamlessly from funk to disco to jazz. Sophie Prideaux, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Nov. 2023 Early on, Gerwig used the Bee Gees and ’70s discos as a reference point for Ronson. Maria Sherman, Fortune, 18 July 2023 For those who want to disco the night away, a Pride edition of Silent Disco starts at 8 p.m. in Klyde Warren Park. Norma Cavazos, Dallas News, 1 June 2023 The duo recorded seven stylistically varied studio albums that drifted from trip-hop to glam rock to disco to indie to folk, sometimes crossing back, with a common thread: the airy-yet-hearty multi-octave voice of its namesake. Rich Juzwiak, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2023 Cancún tends to be more party heavy year-round, with bass-thumping beach clubs and discos like Coco Bongo. Meagan Drillinger, Travel + Leisure, 5 Mar. 2023 But as with the Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire, a kind of continuity has always been built into the group’s propulsive groove, which survived the transition from R&B to disco in the late ’70s and since then has served as fertile source material for countless crate-digging hip-hop producers. Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2021 Or dance to disco? BostonGlobe.com, 12 June 2021 The sassy backing vocals in the chorus are a more retro touch, harkening not just to disco but the funk and R&B of the ’70s and ’80s at large. Vulture, 2 Aug. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'disco.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

short for discotheque

First Known Use

Noun

1957, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1976, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of disco was in 1957

Dictionary Entries Near disco

Cite this Entry

“Disco.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disco. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

disco

noun
dis·​co
ˈdis-kō
plural discos
: a nightclub for dancing to music

More from Merriam-Webster on disco

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