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jazzy

UK/ˈd͡ʒæzi/US/ˈd͡ʒæzi/
adjectiveB2+2 meaningsOccasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,649 of 15,258neutral

Jazzy means bright and showy — or in the style of jazz. Two senses, and only one involves music.

The showy sense is the commoner one in British English, so a jazzy tie or a jazzy pattern is loud and colourful, and it carries a faint suggestion that it is a bit much. The musical sense means having the feel of jazz, and it is used loosely by people who are not musicians. The verb phrase jazz something up means to make it more lively or more colourful.

Definitions of jazzy

  1. 1adjectivejazzyBrightly coloured and showy.B2+

    “He turned up in a jazzy waistcoat.”

    informal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement

  2. 2adjectivestyleIn the style of jazz.B2

    “They played a jazzy arrangement of the carol.”

Where it comes from

From jazz + -y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 39 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

Related words

  • jazz