: relating to or being music performed in an unembellished manner typical of a given idiom or performer
broadly : straightforward

Examples of straight-ahead in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
This is probably the most straight-ahead mystery on the list, yet Harris’s work always has a tinge of something else for me, a hint at something slightly more profound at play. Dwyer Murphy june 24, Literary Hub, 24 June 2025 Some claim the expression refers to the smartest based on straight-ahead smarts. Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025 According to the National Eye Institute, AMD occurs when aging causes damage to the macula, which controls sharp, straight-ahead vision, making one's central vision blurry. Ingrid Vasquez, People.com, 1 Apr. 2025 The album opens with Mockingbird, a straight-ahead blues rocker that might lull you into thinking this is another Blues-slinging record. Tom Teicholz, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025 Arturo Sandoval Sandoval, renowned for blending Afro-Cuban jazz, bebop and straight-ahead jazz, performed in 1990 at the Honors tribute to his mentor Dizzy Gillespie. Cathy Applefeld Olson, Billboard, 9 Dec. 2024 Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba is very serious, without Idina Menzel’s deadpan humor, and Bailey’s Fiyero is played like a straight-ahead charmer, not a slyly fun slacker, and Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible is grounded instead of grand. Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2024 The images are often metaphorical vs. a straight-ahead depiction of what’s going on. William Earl, Variety, 20 Nov. 2024 Another break from the past was in terms of straight-ahead partisanship. Gary Langer, ABC News, 6 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1964, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of straight-ahead was in 1964

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Cite this Entry

“Straight-ahead.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/straight-ahead. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.

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