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YMCA

YMCA

1 3.1
A 1978 disco song by the Village People with a catchy chorus and an arm-letter dance
  • proper noun
  • /waɪ ɛm si eɪ/
: YMCA
  • ♪ It's fun to stay at the ymca ♪ ♪ It's fun to stay at the YMCA ♪ ♪ They have everything ♪ ♪ For a young man to enjoy ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ You don't miss the love the way I do ♪ come on in, sweetie.
  • YMCA bench press
  • YMCA bench

But as they watched this sack of depravity wrap up yet another live filled speech, they thought, I'm playing YMCA.

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Examples

  • Instead of the New Country pop, he aired The House of the Rising Sun, Sweet Dreams, YMCA, The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • They haven't played YMCA yet.

  • Begin the record "YMCA" over this.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Me first, dump these guys off like it's the YMCA...

  • Gonna gimme an Indian and a cop, and I'll sing you "YMCA."

  • And when you said that to her, she went straight up to the YMCA and just started doing laps.

  • (My hip daughters tell me that "YMCA" is enjoying a huge rebirth of popularity at their parties.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • ♪ That's why we go to the YMCA ♪ That's why they go to the YMCA...

  • And, frankly, a little odd to be doing all that in the basement below a country-line dancing bar, where the stomps of boots on the dancefloor could be heard throughout the second show, and, for some reason, the country DJ upstairs chose to play "YMCA" at one point. Not sure how the Village People have become a country act in the past 35 years, but there you go and now you know.

    Blog text (15)
  • The song YMCA by The Village People is famous for its catchy chorus and dance.

Surface Forms

YMCA main

Morphology

YMCA = Y + M + C + A

YMCA is an acronym; the individual letters do not transparently convey the meaning of the organization or the song to learners without knowing the expansion.

Etymology

YMCA is the name of a popular song that was named after the group Young Men's Christian Association ('young men', 'Christian', 'association'), and the chorus spells the letters so people make them with their arms.