Word.ws English Dictionary

la-la

la-la adjective: of indifferent quality; so-so. Also the alternative form of la la.

Adjective

la-la (not comparable)

  1. Of indifferent quality; so-so.
    • Parker's play is only la-la; he is a low fellow, and as clownish in his manners as he is in his dress.1876, Mrs. Hibbert Ware, “The Yule Gift”, in The New Monthly Magazine, volume IX, →OCLC, page 20

Verb

la-la (third-person singular simple present la-la-s, present participle la-la-ing, simple past and past participle la-la-ed)

  1. (intransitive) To sing or recite the syllable la repeatedly.
    • "When the Saints Go Marchin' In," and "Jesus Loves Me," Arly in Spanish, me in English, as, in her orange robe in the wheelchair, her paralyzed arm belted with white Velcro into its fiberglass brace, Mom "la-la-ed" along.1999, Samuel R. Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, New York: New York University Press, →ISBN, page 54
  2. (transitive) To sing (a song) with la replacing the song lyrics.
    • PETER immediately begins ‘La, la-ing’ ‘The Merry Widow’, pulls JOSEPHINE up into a dancing position and begins to waltz her clear of the screen then towards the french window1969, Philip King, I'll Get my Man: A Farce, New York: French, →OCLC, page 64

Noun

la-la (plural la-las)

  1. (US, slang) Something unusually good; (occasionally) something unusually bad.
    • We all agreed he was wise, but we did want the worst way to see that girl. We were sure that she was a la-la from all Billy said.1897, “A fair hypothesis”, in Michiganensian, volume 1, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    lollapalooza
  2. (slang) A woman's genitals, especially the vagina; a sexually permissive woman.
    • Thankfully, other BB starlets have gone on to find work that doesn't involve pushing their la-las together for one-handed mags.2009 May 23, “What they did next”, in Aol.co.uk, archived from the original on 25 Dec 2011
    • For a western woman’s entire life, from her first menstrual period to her death, her ‘la la’ is a moneymaking machine for the big businesses who want to cultivate her ‘lady garden’.2013, Emma Rees, The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History, New York: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 27
    Synonyms:
    vagina

Also used as

la-la is also the alternative form of la la.

Synonyms of la-la

Forms of la-la

Verb
third-person singular presentla-la-s
present participlela-la-ing
past participlela-la-ed
pastla-la-ed
Noun
pluralla-las

Origin of la-la

Sounds used to form meaningless song refrains. Of imitative origin. Compare Old English lā, a common exclamation, Greek λαλαγε (lalage, “babble”), German lallen (“to babble”). Compare also blah blah.

Unknown. Compare la, an interjection used to introduce a statement or express emotion.

From Hokkien 啦啦 (la-la), from 蜊 (lâ, “clam”).

Phrases with la-la

Questions about la-la

What does la-la mean?
La-la means of indifferent quality; so-so.
What part of speech is la-la?
La-la can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.

Words near la-la in the dictionary

  1. la'ship
  2. la'ships
  3. La-
  4. la-de-da
  5. la-di-da
  6. la-la
  7. la-la land
  8. la-la-ed
  9. la-la-ing
  10. la-la-land
  11. la-la-s

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: la-la (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)-Flame, not lame-la-la.wav.

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