fandango
Syllables: fan·dan·go/ˌfæ̝nˈdæ̝ŋ.ɡoʊ̯//ˌfænˈdæŋ.ɡəʊ̯/
fandango noun: a form of lively flamenco music and dance that has many regional variations (e.g. fandango de Huelva), some of which have their own names (e.g. malagueña, granadina).
Noun
fandango (countable and uncountable, plural fandangos or fandangoes)
- A form of lively flamenco music and dance that has many regional variations (e.g. fandango de Huelva), some of which have their own names (e.g. malagueña, granadina).
- The soldiers were oftener gambling and dancing beneath the walls than keeping watch upon the battlements, and nothing was heard from morning till night but the noisy contests of cards and dice, mingled with the sound of the bolero or fandango, the drowsy strumming of the guitar, and the rattling of...1829, Washington Irving, chapter XXVI, in Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada
- […] sweet to us it is to behold delightful dancing, be it the stately splendour of the Pavane which progresseth as large clouds at sun-down that pass by in splendour; or the graceful Allemande; or the Fandango, which goeth by degrees from languorous beauty to the swiftness and passion of Bacchanals...1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 33
- A gathering for dancing; a ball.
- When Auguste Fretéllière and the painter Theodore Gentilz attended a fandango in the 1840s, the festivities took place near Military Plaza.2008, Gene Fowler, Mavericks: A Gallery of Texas Characters, page 38
- Fortunately, in the nineteenth century Iosé Maria Esteva wrote a poetic and detailed account of 'La guanabana' being danced by a group of women at a fandango.2013, Alec Dempster, Lotería Jarocha: Linoleum Prints, page 66
- An unknown entity or contraption.
- What’s that fandango you’re using?
- She had on a new silk dress, flounced clear up to her knees, and some kind of a fandango of a thing on her shoulders.1878, Lumasea, Ruined, and how, page 25
- A confusion; a chaotic collection.
- To my infinite amusement it did take, and I had the satisfaction of seeing it on the boards and also hearing the audience roar with laughter; in fact, I laughed myself, not at my own jokes, but at the people who could be amused at such a fandango of nonsense.1901, Marcian, Relics of the Late William Shakespeare, page 21
- A splotch of colour on a wall charmed his eye, a fandango of shadows, the nonchalant pose of some labourer.1934, Albert Craig Baird, Essays and Addresses Toward a Liberal Education, page 213
- An extravaganza; an instance of lavish and fantastical events or behavior.
- I am preparing to set out in a fortnight, or little more, and jogging on comfortably through Bavaria, Suabia, and France (with a fandango of eight days at Paris), I shall get to Calais in the first week of May.1849, Robert Murray Keith, Memoirs and Correspondence (official and Familiar), page 45
- Venice whirled towards her fall, in the reign of the 120th Doge, in a fandango of high living and enjoyment, until at last Napoleon, brusquely deposing her ineffective Government, ended the Republic and handed the Serenissima contemptuously to the Austrians.1979, Toby Cole, Venice, a Portable Reader, page 38
- A shade of red-violet.
- Vagina.
- So, what? She strangled her and stuck a broken bottle up her... fandango?2016, Sally Wainwright, 12:04 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 2, episode 2, spoken by Shafiq Shah (Shane Zaza)
Verb
fandango (third-person singular simple present fandangos, present participle fandangoing, simple past and past participle fandangoed)
- To dance the fandango.
- To dance, particularly with a lot of energy.
fandango meaning in Indonesian
fandango in Indonesian
- music and dance
- fandango
Examples of fandango in a sentence
- We skipped the light fandango / Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor1967, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, in Procol Harum, performed by Procol Harum:
- I see a little silhouetto of a man / Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?1975, Freddie Mercury, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, in A Night at the Opera, performed by Queen:
- I'm wearing a Spanish skirt so what's wrong with dancing a fandango.2014, Rosie Harris, Looking For Love, page 179:
- "She was latin, and she was satin” a commotion by moonlight a conundrum by candlelight a fandango of respite and tailbones in an invertebratology of polyclads, skates, chitons, and vestigial gills2009, Mathew Kinsella, The California Tales: A Novel, page A-285:
Forms of fandango
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fandangos |
| plural | fandangoes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fandangos |
| present participle | fandangoing |
| past participle | fandangoed |
| past | fandangoed |
Origin of fandango
Borrowed from Spanish fandango, of uncertain origin. Possibly related to Portuguese fado, or of West African origin.
Words that rhyme with fandango
Questions about fandango
- What does fandango mean?
- Fandango means a form of lively flamenco music and dance that has many regional variations (e.g. fandango de Huelva), some of which have their own names (e.g. malagueña, granadina).
- What is fandango in Indonesian?
- Fandango in Indonesian is fandango. See Fandango meaning in Indonesian.
- How do you use fandango in a sentence?
- We skipped the light fandango / Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
- What part of speech is fandango?
- Fandango can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce fandango?
- Fandango is pronounced /ˌfænˈdæŋ.ɡəʊ̯/ (UK).
- What is the plural of fandango?
- The plural of fandango is fandangos.
Words near fandango in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fandango (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-fandango.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-fandango.wav.
Cite this entry: “fandango.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fandango. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.