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rumba

UK/ˈɹʊmbə/US/ˈɹʊmbə/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,699 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: rumbas

The rumba is a slow sensual Cuban partner dance. Dance the rumba, a rumba rhythm, rumba music.

In Cuba the word covers a family of fast drum-and-voice styles, and what the ballroom world calls rumba is slower and only distantly related to any of them — the two things share a name and not much else. It is also spelled rhumba.

Manuel Díaz Reyes · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of rumba

  1. 1nounrumbaA slow sensual Cuban partner dance.B2+

    “The couple danced a slow, swaying rumba to the music of the Cuban band.”

rumba is a dance.

Where it comes from

  1. Spanish

    rumba

  2. English, today

    rumba

Borrowed from Spanish rumba.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Dance

Practise this word

rumba in the wild

  • The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles.

    Rumba

  • Rhumba, also known as ballroom rumba, is a genre of ballroom music and dance that appeared in the East Coast of the United States during the 1930s.

    Ballroom rumba

  • With its rhythms, melodies, and lyrics, Congolese rumba has gained global recognition and remains an integral part of African music heritage.

    Congolese rumba

  • Traditionally performed by poor workers of African descent in streets and solares (courtyards), rumba remains one of Cuba's most characteristic forms of music and dance.

    Cuban rumba

  • The Catalan rumba is a genre of music that developed in Barcelona's Romani community beginning in the 1950s and 1960s.

    Catalan rumba

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.