musical chairs

noun

plural in form but singular in construction

: a game in which players march to music around a row of chairs numbering one less than the players and scramble for seats when the music stops

also : a situation or series of events suggesting the game of musical chairs (as in rapid change or confusing activity)

Examples of musical chairs in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Red Bull playing driver musical chairs for its second seat? —Carly Thomas, HollywoodReporter, 26 June 2025

There are a lot more musical chairs to get through at the boys’ firepit. —Kathleen Walsh, Vulture, 25 June 2025

Audiences scrunched under the Jay Pritzker Pavilion fringe, only to play musical chairs dodging the structure’s many (and ever-changing) leaky spots. —Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 21 June 2025

As summer travel kicks into high gear, the game of musical chairs in the sky shows no signs of slowing down as the seat-swapping trend continues. —Ashley J. Dimella, FOXNews.com, 10 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1877, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for musical chairs

• concessionaires
• affaires
• affairs
• armchairs
• bulgars
• compares
• crosshairs
• declares
• despairs
• downstairs
• forbears
• forebears