Word.ws English Dictionary

breakbeat

breakbeat noun: a form of syncopated rhythm prominent in much African music.

Noun

breakbeat (plural breakbeats)

  1. (countable) A form of syncopated rhythm prominent in much African music.
    • A cornucopia of hyped-up breakbeats, keyboard squiggles, surf grooves, dancehall stylee, dumb loops and much atonal shouting along, Far In dares you not to smile.2001, CMJ New Music Monthly
  2. (uncountable) A genre of electronic dance music based on such syncopated rhythms.

Forms of breakbeat

pluralbreakbeats

Origin of breakbeat

From break + beat.

Words formed from breakbeat

Questions about breakbeat

What does breakbeat mean?
Breakbeat means a form of syncopated rhythm prominent in much African music.
What part of speech is breakbeat?
Breakbeat is a noun.
What is the plural of breakbeat?
The plural of breakbeat is breakbeats.

Words near breakbeat in the dictionary

  1. breakaway
  2. Breakaway Creek
  3. breakaway glass
  4. breakaways
  5. breakback
  6. breakbeat
  7. breakbeats
  8. breakbeaty
  9. breakbone
  10. breakbone fever
  11. breakbones

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: breakbeat (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:

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