Word.ws English Dictionary

bebop

/ˈbiːbɒp/US/ˈbibɑp/

bebop noun: an early form of modern jazz played by small groups and featuring driving rhythms and complex, often dissonant harmonies.

Noun

bebop (uncountable)

  1. An early form of modern jazz played by small groups and featuring driving rhythms and complex, often dissonant harmonies.

Verb

bebop (third-person singular simple present bebops, present participle bebopping, simple past and past participle bebopped)

  1. (intransitive) To participate in bebop jazz, such as by dancing in a way associated with the genre.
    • Six months into their career, the Clash already showed themselves the equal of any rock band that had come before them, simply by assaulting the last frontier of rock mythology: the notion that the rock audience, like some sort of bebopping proletariat, was a receptacle of goodness and hope, and...1988 September 2, Bill Wyman, “Terms of interment: retrospecting the Ramones and the Clash”, in Chicago Reader
    • “The studios think we are having a horrible time out here,” said Richard Potter, a screenwriter who made “Strike Dancing,” a YouTube video showing pickets bebopping in formation to “Play That Funky Music.”2007 November 26, Brooks Barnes, “Laugh Lines in the Hollywood Strike”, in New York Times
  2. (informal, intransitive, usually) To walk in an easygoing, carefree manner.
    • Typically one could spot Chet bebopping down the sidewalk in an Amish hat, or hunched over a cafeteria table discussing Calvinism or the Vietnam war.1986, Steve Estes, Called to Die: The Story of American Linguist Chet Bitterman, Slain by Terrorists, Zondervan Publishing Company, →ISBN
    • I can't even say it was the people who board and casually whack off the top of your head with their slung-over-the-shoulder carry-ons as they obliviously bebop down the aisle to locate their seats.2001, Patsy Clairmont, The Best Devotions of Patsy Clairmont, Zondervan Publishing Company, →ISBN

Forms of bebop

third-person singular presentbebops
present participlebebopping
past participlebebopped
pastbebopped

Origin of bebop

Alteration of earlier rebop, nonsense syllables used in scat singing in the 1940s. Compare doo be doo be doo, doo-wop, etc.

Words formed from bebop

Questions about bebop

What does bebop mean?
Bebop means an early form of modern jazz played by small groups and featuring driving rhythms and complex, often dissonant harmonies.
What part of speech is bebop?
Bebop can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce bebop?
Bebop is pronounced /ˈbiːbɒp/ (UK).

Words near bebop in the dictionary

  1. beblubbering
  2. beblur
  3. Beboid
  4. bebonneted
  5. bebooted
  6. bebop
  7. bebopped
  8. bebopper
  9. beboppers
  10. bebopping
  11. bebops

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bebop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bebop.wav.

Cite this entry: “bebop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bebop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.