Word.ws English Dictionary

minstrelry

minstrelry noun: the art of minstrels.

Noun

minstrelry (plural minstrelries)

  1. The art of minstrels.
    Synonyms:
    minstrelsy
  2. A simplified depiction of another culture, especially black African, for entertainment purposes, generally seen as offensive.
    • Possibly it was a tune of West African origin or, equally likely, a piece of mock-Ethiopian minstrelry composed by a white American.1998, Neil Parsons, King Khama, Emperor Joe, and the Great White Queen: Victorian Britain Through African Eyes, page 162
    • Minstrelry (making oneself up as “the other” to take the other over, to evacuate difference, to control representation) is indeed a dangerous and unethical practice.2007, Judith Miller, Ariane Mnouchkine, page 58

Synonyms of minstrelry

Forms of minstrelry

pluralminstrelries

Origin of minstrelry

From minstrel + -ry.

Questions about minstrelry

What does minstrelry mean?
Minstrelry means the art of minstrels.
What part of speech is minstrelry?
Minstrelry is a noun.
What is the plural of minstrelry?
The plural of minstrelry is minstrelries.

Words near minstrelry in the dictionary

  1. minstrelings
  2. minstrelled
  3. minstrelling
  4. minstrellings
  5. minstrelries
  6. minstrelry
  7. minstrels
  8. minstrels' galleries
  9. minstrels' gallery
  10. minstrelship
  11. minstrelsies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: minstrelry (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: “minstrelry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/minstrelry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.