work song

noun

: a song sung in rhythm with work

Examples of work song in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This was a work song preserved by the folklorist Alan Lomax, who recorded thousands of vernacular American performances for the Library of Congress. — Iqbal Akhtar, The Conversation, 30 June 2026

Blues developed after the Civil War (1861–65) and was influenced by 19th-century work songs and field hollers, minstrel show music, ragtime, and church music such as spirituals and hymns, as well as the folk and popular music of white Southerners. — René Ostberg, Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 May 2026

Sonically, the genre is indebted to blues and gospel music, but echoes of other kinds of Black music—like work songs, string and jug band music, Black vaudeville, boogie-woogie, and even minstrelsy—can be heard in it. — Literary Hub, 17 Feb. 2026

In the cotton rows, Willie and Bobbie heard work songs and blues. — Alex Abramovich, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1841, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for work song

• agung
• along
• belong
• birdsong
• furlong
• headlong
• headstrong
• lifelong
• plainsong
• prolong
• sarong
• tanjong