Word.ws English Dictionary

highlife

highlife noun: a genre of music that originated in Ghana in the early 20th century, blending elements of traditional Akan music with Western instruments and ideas.

Noun

highlife (countable and uncountable, plural highlifes)

  1. (uncountable) A genre of music that originated in Ghana in the early 20th century, blending elements of traditional Akan music with Western instruments and ideas.
    • Anwar took the broom away from the Congolese cleaner – whose name I did not know, whose name no one ever thought to ask – and made her dance with him, to some highlife he had going on the transistor radio he carried everywhere.2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 326
  2. (countable) A work or performance in this style.
    • Then he left the stage and listened to us playing highlifes.1985, John Collins, African Pop Roots: The Inside Rhythms of Africa, →ISBN, page 76
    • Several of the city's most prominent ensembles started to incorporate foreign rock 'n' roll numbers into their existing repertories of ballroom, calypsos, and highlifes.2012, Nate Plageman, Highlife Saturday Night: Popular Music and Social Change in Urban Ghana, →ISBN, page 142

Proper noun (1) capitalized: HighLife

HighLife

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Highlife.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Highlife

Highlife

  1. A Life-like cellular automaton with the rule B36/S23.

Forms of highlife

Noun
pluralhighlifes
Proper noun
alternative formHighLife

Origin of highlife

From high + life.

Words formed from highlife

Questions about highlife

What does highlife mean?
Highlife means a genre of music that originated in Ghana in the early 20th century, blending elements of traditional Akan music with Western instruments and ideas.
What part of speech is highlife?
Highlife can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of highlife?
The plural of highlife is highlifes.

Words near highlife in the dictionary

  1. highless
  2. Highley
  3. Highleys
  4. highlier
  5. highliest
  6. highlife
  7. highlifes
  8. highlight
  9. highlightable
  10. highlighted
  11. highlighter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: highlife (page history and authors); HighLife (page history and authors); Highlife (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.

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