Meanings
plural bandleaders · alternative band leader
- A musician who conducts or leads a band of musicians.
By and large back then, bassists weren’t bandleaders; Mingus was an anomaly.
2024 May 1, Marcus J. Moore, “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Jazz Bass”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 06 Jun 20241 more example
Before Brooklyn became the World Historical Hipster Hub, there were the Hepsters of Harlem. And well before there was an Urban Dictionary for every last nuance of non-standard English, the bandleader and amateur linguist Cab Calloway cataloged some of the unique speech of the 1930s and ’40s in his Hepster’s Dictionary.
2010 July 9, J. David Goodman, “Of Local History and Hepcats”, in New York Times City Room, archived from the original on 20 Feb 2025Synonyms: conductor
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA musician who conducts or leads a band of musicians.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰendʰ-
- Proto-Germanic*bandiz
- Old Englishbend
- Middle Englishband
- Englishband
- Proto-West Germanic*laidī
- Proto-West Germanic*laid
- Proto-West Germanic*laidijārī
- Old Englishlǣdere
- Middle Englishledere
- Englishleader
- Englishbandleader
Translations
Czech kapelník
- kapelníkmusician who leads a band of musicians
Dutch bandleider
- bandleidermusician who leads a band of musicians
Greek αρχιμουσικός
- αρχιμουσικός (archimousikós)musician who leads a band of musicians
Cite this entry
bandleader. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bandleader
“bandleader.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bandleader. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bandleader,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bandleader.
Source: bandleader on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.