Meanings
- uncountableMusic composed to accompany social dancing.
In the bar in which Strickland and Nichols sat a mechanical piano was loudly grinding out dance music.
1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XLVII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC1 more example
From all sides her gift for playing the piano was insisted upon, and she had to consent. As very soon she had played the only pieces of dance music she could remember, she went on to play an air from a sonata by Mozart.
1915, Virginia Woolf, chapter XII, in The Voyage Out, London: Duckworth & Co., […], →OCLC - abbreviationellipsisuncountablemodern usageEllipsis of electronic dance music.
Britpop had revitalised rock, and an unprecedented explosion in dance music – sparked off by a second consecutive sunny and idyllic Glastonbury – transformed how Britain thought, listened, partied and came down afterwards.
2015 June 28, “It was 20 years ago today: the year British dance music went wild”, in The Observer
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna genre of popular music composed for ballroom dancing
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Finnish tanssimusiikki
- tanssimusiikkimusic composed to accompany social dancing
French musique entraînante
- musique entraînantemusic composed to accompany social dancing
German Tanzmusik
- Tanzmusikmusic composed to accompany social dancing
Hungarian tánczene
- tánczenemusic composed to accompany social dancing
Italian musica da ballo
- musica da ballomusic composed to accompany social dancing
Polish muzyka taneczna
- muzyka tanecznamusic composed to accompany social dancing
Romanian muzică de dans
- muzică de dansmusic composed to accompany social dancing
Cite this entry
dance music. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dance%20music
“dance music.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dance%20music. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dance music,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dance%20music.
Source: dance music on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.