noun
mambo
MAM-boh
noun
1
A lively Latin American dance and musical style that developed from the rumba in 1940s Cuba.
"They danced the mambo all night at the club."
verb
1
To dance the mambo.
"The couple mamboed across the floor with ease."
How to Use Mambo
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA fast, rhythmic Latin dance style, or the act of dancing it.
Word Forms
mamboed past tense, mambos plural, mamboes plural, mambos singular
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Etymology
From Haitian Creole manbo ("voodoo priestess"), later applied to the Cuban dance style via Cuban Spanish.