noun
samba
SAHM-buh
noun
1
A lively Brazilian ballroom dance, or the style of dancing it.
"They spent every Wednesday evening learning to samba at the community hall."
"Her hips moved in time as she danced the samba across the floor."
2
A Brazilian musical genre with roots in West African rhythms, brought over during the slave trade, that this dance is performed to.
"The parade floats blasted samba from huge speakers all afternoon."
verb
1
To dance the samba.
"The whole street sambaed past the judges at Carnival."
How to Use Samba
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA festive Brazilian dance and its music, famous from Carnival parades.
Common pairings
dance the samba
samba music
samba school
Word Forms
sambaed past tense, sambas plural, sambas singular
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Etymology
Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese samba, which itself traces back to a Bantu language of West Africa.