Did you know?
A style of dance music that arose in the mid-1970s, disco (short for discotheque), is characterized by hypnotic rhythm, repetitive lyrics, and electronically produced sounds. Disco evolved largely from New York underground nightclubs, in which disc jockeys would play dance records for hours without interruption, taking care to synchronize the beats so as to make a seamless change between records. Artists such as Donna Summer, Chic, and the Bee Gees, had hits in the genre, which peaked with the release of the film Saturday Night Fever (1977). Disco faded after 1980, but its influence, especially its sequenced electronic beats, still affects much of pop music.
Examples of disco in a Sentence
Emma Banks, InStyle, 4 Mar. 2026
The film, directed by Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard, explores the life and legacy of Carl Bean, a disco singer who became an archbishop and pioneer in the LGBTQ civil rights movement.
—Richard Johnson, New York Daily News, 1 Mar. 2026
Minty Mellon, Vogue, 16 Dec. 2025
There were jazz clubs and discos in lofts in SoHo and other places.
—Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, 13 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for disco
Cite this Entry
“Disco.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disco. Accessed 12 Mar. 2026.
Copy Citation
