jazz

/d͡ʒæz/

jazz noun: a musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time, commonly characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation.

Image: Robert Runyon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

jazz (usually uncountable, plural jazzes)

(usually) A musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time, commonly characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation.
- You dare to bring your jazz songs into my house!1927, Samson Raphaelson, Alfred A. Cohn, The Jazz Singer, spoken by Jakie Rabinowitz (Al Jolson)
- Of later composers of Jewish musical plays we mention Joseph Rumshinksy (born in Wilna in 1879), who gained popularity in New York. His music is based upon folk motives and influenced by "Jazz" rhythms and melodic curves1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 454
(figuratively, usually) Energy, excitement, excitability.
- “You want something zippy there. Something with a bit of jazz to it!”1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “(please specify the page)”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC
- He loves the risk. The danger. He loves the jazz.1983, Frank Lupo, Stephen J. Cannell, “Mexican Slayride”, in The A-Team, season 1, episode 1, spoken by B. A. Baracus (Mr. T)
(usually) The substance or makeup of a thing; unspecified thing(s).
- and all that jazz
- What is all this jazz lying around?
Synonyms:

stuff, Sorted by number of Google hits, widget, hickey, gizmo, thingy, gimmick, thingie, jigger, gismo
(usually) Something of excellent quality, the genuine article.
- That show was the jazz!
- This risotto is simply the jazz.
(usually) Nonsense.
- Stop talking jazz.
Synonyms:

rubbish, wass, absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls
(slang, usually) Semen, jizz.
- Suddenly, Bobby oozed his jazz into Gene's throat.1968, Len Harrington, In drag, page 7
- […] making Glenn feel as though he could never stop shooting his jazz wildly up inside the man's brawny body!1974, Peter Pepper, Meatslinger, page 141
(usually) A red-skinned variety of eating apple.

Verb

jazz (third-person singular simple present jazzes, present participle jazzing, simple past and past participle jazzed)

(slang) To destroy; to ruin.
- You’ve gone and jazzed it now!
Synonyms:

annihilate
To play (jazz music).

Synonyms:

cook
To dance to the tunes of jazz music.
To enliven, brighten up, make more colourful or exciting.

Synonyms:

invigorate
(slang) To complicate.
- Don’t jazz it too much!
Synonyms:

complexify
(US, dated, intransitive, slang) To have sex for money, to prostitute oneself.
- ‘Jazzing?’ Temple whispered […]. ‘Yes, putty-face!’ the woman said. ‘How do you suppose I paid that lawyer?’1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 59
Synonyms:

sell one's body
(intransitive, slang) To move (around/about) in a lively or frivolous manner; to fool around.
- I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a Billingsgate fishwoman blush!1923, Agatha Christie, The Murder on the Links
- "In the old days, heaps of unmarried women were companions, and let me tell you, my dear girl, they had a much better time than they have now, with all this jazzing and short skirts and pretending to have careers. The modern girl hasn't a scrap of decent feeling or sentiment about her. Money--money...1928, Dorothy L. Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
(slang, transitive) To distract or pester.
- Stop jazzing me!
Synonyms:

bother
(slang) To ejaculate.
- Twenty-four black men jazzed madly as trumpets exploded her eardrums in tom-tom time. Ebony orgasm flooded her with creme.1982, Arthur Winfield Knight, Kit Knight, Beat angels, page 7
- The thrill of the rimming soon made this guy beg for me to stop before he jazzed his nuts.1986, Winston Leyland, Hard, page 84

Proper noun capitalized: Jazz

Jazz

A diminutive of the male given name Jasper.
- Jasper's teeth were set; he didn't move. "Jazz, this isn't anything you've seen before," Alice said quietly. "Trust me."2008, Stephenie Meyer, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Little, Brown and Company, page 492
A diminutive of the male given name James.
- His real name was James, but those who knew him seemed never to call him that. He was Jamesy, or more often Jazz.2001, Ian Rankin, Resurrection Men, Orion, page 4
Synonyms:

Jamie, Jaime, Jem, Jemmy
A diminutive of the female given name Jasmine.
- "He calls you Jazzikins." He would. He had. Couldn't call me Jazz or Jasmine the way everyone else did.2012? Madeleine Oh, At Long Last, in The Mammoth Book of Erotica: Volume 4, Constable and Robinson Ltd (2012)

jazz meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

jazz in Hindi

musical art form: जाज़ jāz, जैज़ jaiz

jazz in Tamil

அமெரிக்க ஆப்பிரிக்கர்களால் இசைக்கப்படும், ஆரவார நடன இசை

jazz in Marathi

musical art form: जॅज jĕj

jazz in Urdu

جاز

More languagesFewer languages

jazz in Bengali: জ্যাজ, বাজে কথা, শ্রুতিকটু, অতিস্পষ্ট রংদার
jazz in Telugu: జాజ్, జాఝ్
jazz in Malayalam: ജാസ്, ജാസ്സ്, ജാസ്സിന്
jazz in Kannada: ಜಾಝ್, ಜಾಜ್
jazz in Punjabi: ਜੈਜ਼ jaiz
jazz in Gujarati: જાઝ, જાઝ કરવા માટે
jazz in Odia: ଜାଜ୍, ଜାଝ୍, ଜାଜ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
jazz in Nepali: ज्याज, जाज, ज्याज गर्न
jazz in Tagalog: diyas, dyas
jazz in Arabic: جَاز jāz
jazz in Malay: jaz
jazz in Indonesian: jaz
jazz in Persian: جاز jâz
jazz in Thai: แจ๊ส jɛ́ɛt, แจซซ์ jɛ́ɛt

Examples of jazz in a sentence

I'm just going down to the shops and jazz.
I'm gonna blow in this horn and make you know that jazz is the king and let it be so!1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A...
With their hippin', and the hoppin', and the bippin', and the boppin', so they don't know what the jazz…is all about!1995 April 30, Mike Reiss, Al Jean, “'Round Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 6, episode 22, spoken by Bill Cosby (Dan Castellaneta):
Now, they just don't teach that jazz in college.1975, Garry Marshall et al., “Richie's Flip Side”, in Happy Days, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard):
As he clung to the legs of his captor, he splayed his own out to the side, baring his groin and genitals to the eyes of all just as his jazz began to spurt out onto the stage.2018, Bert Shrader, A Gay Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum:

All 40 example sentences with jazz

Synonyms of jazz

stuff
Sorted by number of Google hits
widget
hickey
gizmo
thingy
gimmick
thingie
jigger
gismo

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of jazz

Forms of jazz

Noun
plural	jazzes
alternative form (dated)	jaz
alternative form (dated)	jas
alternative form (dated)	jass
alternative form (dated)	jasz
Verb
third-person singular present	jazzes
present participle	jazzing
past participle	jazzed
past	jazzed

Origin of jazz

Unknown. First attested around 1912 in a discussion of baseball; attested in reference to music around 1915. Numerous references suggest that the term may be connected to jasm and jism.

A fanciful spelling variant of Jaz and Jas.

Words formed from jazz

Phrases with jazz

11 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with jazz

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about jazz

What does jazz mean?: Jazz means a musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time, commonly characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation.
What is jazz in Hindi?: Jazz in Hindi is जाज़ (jāz), जैज़ (jaiz). See Jazz meaning in Hindi.
How do you use jazz in a sentence?: I'm just going down to the shops and jazz.
What part of speech is jazz?: Jazz can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce jazz?: Jazz is pronounced /d͡ʒæz/.
What is the plural of jazz?: The plural of jazz is jazzes.

Words near jazz in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: jazz (page history and authors); Jazz (page history and authors); jazz (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jazz (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jazz (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jazz (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jazz (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jazz (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jazz (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jazz (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); jazz (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-jazz.ogg.

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