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🎺 A brass rhythm 🎺 Brass band style 🥁 A band sound
oompah

oompah

2 9.2
Music with a strong repeated brass beat often played by bands
  • noun
  • /ˈuːmpɑː/
translation icon : oompah
  • During Oktoberfest, you can hear the joyful sounds of oompah music echoing through the festival.
  • oompah band
  • oompah music

Examples

  • As the band played lively oompah music, the crowd couldn't resist dancing.

  • Imagine how much better it would be if you were in a giant tent, with hundreds of people, all singing along as the song is being played by a German oompah band.

    Blog text (23)

  • Greek night brought the Greek people out for dinner and lots of oompahs and broken plates.

    Blog text (17)

  • A German "oompah" band strikes up lively tunes that will make you want to sing along or get up and join the dancers for a polka.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The survival of Dixieland jazz may resonate interestingly with scholars familiar with the heritage of the traditional oompah band in the Biergarten.

    Academic text (1996)

  • It was not a melody, of course, just a noise, like the beery passing of wind in the belly of an oompah band, and soon it settled into a two-stroke rhythm: oom-pah oom-pah oom-pah.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The cheerful oompah rhythm filled the air, inviting everyone to join in the celebration.

Synonyms

oompa
vsoompah
9.7

A lively, bouncy rhythm used in brass or folk music

is the specific strong repeated brass rhythm rather than just a lively sound

Surface Forms

oompah singular
oompahs plural

Etymology

Oompah comes from the sound people make to copy brass bands: oom for the 'deep' tuba note and pah for the 'short' beat. So oompah names that lively brass style with a strong, repeated rhythm.