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Glite Dictionary
🎸 Like blues music 🔵 Slightly blue
bluesy

bluesy

5 5.5
Like music with a slow, sad sound that shows strong feeling
  • adjective
  • /ˈbluːzi/
translation icon : melancólico
  • Her voice had a bluesy quality that captured the essence of sadness and longing.
  • bluesy rock
  • soulful and bluesy
  • bluesy guitar

There's action and we mentioned them before and they're more Hard Rock or bluesy, but they can be pretty hard and heavy.

Examples

  • Steve Goodman stomped his feet and wailed out a bluesy folk tune.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Whitesnake is moving from the earlier bluesy stuff to more commercial metal.

  • I remember hearing the first bluesy notes of "At Last."

    Book Club (2018)

  • I'm just feeling a little bluesy.

    Check Point (2017)

  • It was way less bluesy than the Friday night show.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Allyson was in a bluesy mood.

    Blog text (17)

  • The sounds are also much fuller and indulge Jack's more bluesy tendencies.

    Blog text (9)

  • On the radio, we hear DIHAH WASHINGTON begin to sing "IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO"—a beautiful, bluesy love song.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • There were a couple of bars he frequented—quiet, bluesy places that made him feel there was a certain melancholy elegance to drinking by himself; there was an Italian restaurant he liked, and a Thai place.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The album combines all of the elements that make up Zodiac: virtuosic guitars, energetic drums, bluesy riffs, and charismatic vocals.

    Blog text (34)

Synonyms

melancholy
vsbluesy
37 5.9

Feeling or showing deep sadness

is a musical style or sound that often communicates that sadness
low-down
vsbluesy
  • US
1 7.9

Sounding raw and soulful like early blues

is a broader musical or emotional style like blues, often expressing sadness

How Soulful

soulful
32 4.5
bluesy
5 5.5
funky
17 6.5
jazzy
8 5.8

Surface Forms

bluesy positive

Morphology

bluesy = blues (semi-transparent) = blues + y

While 'bluesy' is derived from 'blues', the specific emotional or stylistic connotation may not be immediately obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Bluesy comes from the music blues and the ending -y, which means 'like' or 'having'. The music called the blues was named from the old use of blue to mean 'sad', so bluesy means 'having the soulful, sad sound or feeling of blues music'.