: relating to or being music performed in an unembellished manner typical of a given idiom or performer
broadly : straightforward

Examples of straight-ahead in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Some claim the expression refers to the smartest based on straight-ahead smarts. Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025 According to the National Eye Institute, AMD occurs when aging causes damage to the macula, which controls sharp, straight-ahead vision, making one's central vision blurry. Ingrid Vasquez, People.com, 1 Apr. 2025 The album opens with Mockingbird, a straight-ahead blues rocker that might lull you into thinking this is another Blues-slinging record. Tom Teicholz, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025 Arturo Sandoval Sandoval, renowned for blending Afro-Cuban jazz, bebop and straight-ahead jazz, performed in 1990 at the Honors tribute to his mentor Dizzy Gillespie. Cathy Applefeld Olson, Billboard, 9 Dec. 2024 Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba is very serious, without Idina Menzel’s deadpan humor, and Bailey’s Fiyero is played like a straight-ahead charmer, not a slyly fun slacker, and Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible is grounded instead of grand. Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2024 The images are often metaphorical vs. a straight-ahead depiction of what’s going on. William Earl, Variety, 20 Nov. 2024 Another break from the past was in terms of straight-ahead partisanship. Gary Langer, ABC News, 6 Nov. 2024 The projects that tend to do best are either straight-ahead rock or hard-to-categorize experimentalism: As examples, Rosalia’s Motomami took the prize in 2023, while Juanes and Natalia Lafourcade shared the award in an unexpected tie last year. Julyssa Lopez, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1964, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of straight-ahead was in 1964

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Cite this Entry

“Straight-ahead.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/straight-ahead. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.

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