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Glite Dictionary
square-dance music

square-dance music

3.2
Music played to accompany square dancing, often with lively fiddle or banjo rhythms
  • noun
  • US
translation icon : música de baile cuadrado
  • Traditional square-dance music often includes fiddles, banjos, and energetic rhythms.

Examples

  • The festival featured lively square-dance music that had everyone clapping along.

  • Do you enjoy square-dance music?

  • He collected rare recordings of vintage square-dance music from the 1940s.

  • We played square-dance music at the community event.

  • The lively square-dance music filled the hall, prompting everyone to join in the fun.

  • At the wedding, the DJ played traditional square-dance music to get guests moving on the dance floor.

  • During the county fair, we enjoyed square-dance music played by a live band under the stars.

Synonyms

dance music
vssquare-dance music
16 1.4

Music with a strong beat that people dance to at parties

is for planned group choreography with rhythm matched to coordinated moves

Antonyms

solo
60 2.9

Without any other people present

unaccompanied
14 4.6

Without another person to go with you

Surface Forms

square-dance music singular
square-dance musics plural

Morphology

square-dance + music

The phrase is compositionally built from a dance type plus 'music' and thus means 'music for square dancing,' which a B1 learner who knows 'square' and 'dance' (or the compound 'square dance') and 'music' can readily infer. This follows a common cross-linguistic pattern ([dance-type] + music = music for that dance), so the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.

Etymology

Square-dance music comes from music played for a square-dance, a lively group dance where four couples form a square and follow someone who calls the moves. The strong beats from fiddles and banjos help people move together, so the phrase means music made 'to go with' square dancing.