Word.ws English Dictionary

Mexican wave

Mexican wave noun: a phenomenon that primarily occurs at sports events, where the members of the crowd stand up and/or raise their hands in turn, creating the illusion of a wave passing through the crowd.

Noun

Mexican wave (plural Mexican waves)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) A phenomenon that primarily occurs at sports events, where the members of the crowd stand up and/or raise their hands in turn, creating the illusion of a wave passing through the crowd.
    • This is an important idea and can best be illustrated by analogy with a Mexican wave. Although the Mexican wave seems to involve the coherent motion of a large number of people, it is clear to those who have been involved, that the “trigger” for an individual to react is entirely spatially and...1995, Shane Cloude, An Introduction to Electromagnetic Wave Propagation & Antennas, Springer, 0-387-91501-X, pages 3–4
    • The usual signals for standing are: at the arrival of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; […]; and every time the Colour passes in front of you. The effect can sometimes be like a rather well-dressed Mexican wave.2001, John Morgan, Debrett’s New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners: The Indispensable Handbook, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 127

Verb

Mexican wave (third-person singular simple present Mexican waves, present participle Mexican waving, simple past and past participle Mexican waved)

  1. To perform a Mexican wave.

Synonyms of Mexican wave

Forms of Mexican wave

Noun
pluralMexican waves
Verb
third-person singular presentMexican waves
present participleMexican waving
past participleMexican waved
pastMexican waved

Origin of Mexican wave

Popularised during the 1986 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico.

Questions about Mexican wave

What does Mexican wave mean?
Mexican wave means a phenomenon that primarily occurs at sports events, where the members of the crowd stand up and/or raise their hands in turn, creating the illusion of a wave passing through the crowd.
What part of speech is Mexican wave?
Mexican wave can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of Mexican wave?
The plural of Mexican wave is Mexican waves.

Words near Mexican wave in the dictionary

  1. Mexican train
  2. Mexican turnover
  3. Mexican turnovers
  4. Mexican walking fish
  5. Mexican War
  6. Mexican wave
  7. Mexican waves
  8. Mexican west coast rattlesnake
  9. Mexican west coast rattlesnakes
  10. Mexican white pine
  11. Mexican white pines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Mexican wave (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: en-au-Mexican wave.ogg.

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