Word.ws English Dictionary

tango

Syllables: tan·goUK/ˈtæ̞ŋɡəʊ̯/US/ˈtæ̝ŋɡoʊ̯/

tango noun: a standard ballroom dance in 4/4 time; or a social dance, the Argentine tango. Also the alternative letter-case form of Tango from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.

tango: a standard ballroom dance in 4/4 time; or a social dance, the Argentine tango
Image: Helge Høifødt, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

tango (plural tangos or tangoes)

  1. A standard ballroom dance in 4/4 time; or a social dance, the Argentine tango.
  2. A Spanish flamenco dance with different steps from the Argentine.
  3. A piece of music suited to such a dance.
  4. A dark orange colour shade; deep tangerine

Verb

tango (third-person singular simple present tangoes, present participle tangoing, simple past and past participle tangoed)

  1. To dance the tango.
  2. (intransitive, slang) To mingle or interact (with each other).
    • Creamy cheese, tangy-sweet peppers, and a hit of heat tango in this sexy deviled-egg combo.2013, Kathy Casey, D'Lish Deviled Eggs, page 67

Noun (2)

tango (plural tangos or tangoes)

  1. (US, slang) A target; an enemy.
    • Tango down!
    • The two tangoes running toward the carnage at the prison door dropped simultaneously, dead in their tracks.2005, Charles W. Sasser, Detachment Delta: Operation Aces Wild, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 370

Proper noun capitalized: Tango

Tango (plural Tangos)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

tango is also the alternative letter-case form of Tango from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.

tango meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

tango in Hindi

टैंगो, टेंगो

tango in Tamil

டாங்கோ, தங்கோ

tango in Marathi

टॅंगो, टांगो, टँगो

tango in Urdu

ٹینگو, ٹانگو, تانگو
More languagesFewer languages
tango in Bengali
ট্যাঙ্গো, টাঙ্গো, ট্যাংগো
tango in Telugu
టాంగో, టంగో, టాంగోకు
tango in Malayalam
ടാംഗോ, ടാൻഗോ, ടാംഗോയിലേക്ക്
tango in Kannada
ಟ್ಯಾಂಗೋ, ಟ್ಯಾಂಗೊ, ಟಾಂಗೋ
tango in Punjabi
ਟੈਂਗੋ, ਟੈਂਗੋ ਤੱਕ
tango in Gujarati
ટેંગો, ટેન્ગો, ટાંગો
tango in Odia
ଟାଙ୍ଗୋ
tango in Nepali
ट्याङ्गो, टाङ्गो, टेङ्गो
tango in Tagalog
tanggo
tango in Arabic
تَانْغُو tanḡū

Examples of tango in a sentence

  • It'll be a two-hour trip to the tango, flying tea-kettle.2015 November 23, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, “Dulcinea”, in The Expanse, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Ade Nygaard (Kristen Hager):
  • "One tango dead and Marcus is down, John."2017, Beth Rhodes, Strike Zone, →ISBN, page 210:

All 18 example sentences with tango

Forms of tango

Noun
pluraltangos
pluraltangoes
Verb
third-person singular presenttangoes
present participletangoing
past participletangoed
pasttangoed
Proper noun
pluralTangos

Plural of tango: tangos or tangoes

Origin of tango

Borrowed from Rioplatense Spanish tango, probably from a Niger-Congo language (compare Ibibio tamgu (“to dance”)).

From translingual Tango (representing the letter T), from English tango (see above).

Two main origins: * Borrowed from Italian Tango, probably a patronymic surname from a Germanic personal name. * Borrowed from Japanese 丹後 (Tango), the name of an old province of central Japan.

Words formed from tango

Phrases with tango

Words that rhyme with tango

Questions about tango

What does tango mean?
Tango means a standard ballroom dance in 4/4 time; or a social dance, the Argentine tango.
What is tango in Hindi?
Tango in Hindi is टैंगो, टेंगो. See Tango meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tango in a sentence?
It'll be a two-hour trip to the tango, flying tea-kettle.
What part of speech is tango?
Tango can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tango?
Tango is pronounced /ˈtæ̞ŋɡəʊ̯/ (UK).
What is the plural of tango?
The plural of tango is tangos.

Words near tango in the dictionary

  1. Tanglish
  2. tangly
  3. Tangmere
  4. Tangney
  5. Tangneys
  6. tango
  7. tango uniform
  8. Tangob
  9. tangoed
  10. tangoes
  11. tangoing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tango (page history and authors); Tango (page history and authors); tango (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tango (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:

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

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