Word.ws English Dictionary

protopunk

protopunk noun: collectively, the music (of various genres and backgrounds) that influenced the later punk movement in the 1970s.

Noun

protopunk (uncountable)

  1. Collectively, the music (of various genres and backgrounds) that influenced the later punk movement in the 1970s.
    • Garage bands popularize protopunk rebellion.2006, Katherine Charlton, Rock music styles: a history, page 69
    • Susan wasn't in the mood to talk about glass, or bees, or even protopunk feminist singer-songwriter poets of the 1970s, and she was almost always in the mood to talk about them.2009, Chelsea Cain, Sweetheart, page 216

Forms of protopunk

alternative formproto-punk

Origin of protopunk

From proto- + punk.

Questions about protopunk

What does protopunk mean?
Protopunk means collectively, the music (of various genres and backgrounds) that influenced the later punk movement in the 1970s.
What part of speech is protopunk?
Protopunk is a noun.

Words near protopunk in the dictionary

  1. protopsychology
  2. protopterid
  3. protopterids
  4. protoptile
  5. protoptiles
  6. protopunk
  7. protoracism
  8. protoracisms
  9. protoracist
  10. protoracists
  11. protorap

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: protopunk (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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