dance hall

noun

1

: a large room set aside or suitable for dances

especially : a public hall offering facilities for dancing

2

dancehall

ˈdan(t)s-ˌhȯl 

ˈdän(t)s-

: a genre of Jamaican music derived from reggae in which an artist improvises vocals over a recorded or live beat

… anyone who knew her or worked with her knows that she loves dancehall and has much respect and passion for the genre.

—Stephanie K

—often used before another noun

dancehall music

A key form of symbolic capital obtainable in Jamaica is knowledge and possession of many Jamaican dancehall records.

—Marvin Sterling

Examples of dance hall in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Bennett was a prolific songwriter and torchbearer of a circuit full of roadside dance halls that created a self-sustaining music scene in the Mountain West in the 1970s and 1980s. —Josh Crutchmer, Rolling Stone, 15 Sep. 2024

First opened in 1904, the Ravinia Festival was initially conceived as a high-end amusement park with a music pavilion, dance hall, baseball stadium and other attractions. —Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune, 31 Aug. 2024

Throughout the dance hall, there are craft tables and photo ops so the dads and daughters can get their photos taken and have souvenirs to remember each other by. —Olivia B. Waxman, TIME, 14 Aug. 2024

With a warrant in hand, Moses and a marshal, James Gainsford, who had been Hickok’s deputy in Abilene, scoured the territory’s vast cattle herds, saloons and dance halls with no luck. —Katy Roberts, Washington Post, 29 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined at sense 1