samba

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese samba, from a Bantu language. Doublet of semba.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɑmbə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑmbə

samba (countable and uncountable, plural sambas)

1. (dance) A Brazilian ballroom dance or dance style.
2. (music) A Brazilian musical genre, to which the aforementioned dance is danced, which has its roots in West Africa via the slave trade.
   • 1986, “La Isla Bonita”, in True Blue, performed by Madonna:

     And when the samba played, the sun would set so high / Ring through my ears and sting my eyes, your Spanish lullaby

   • 2007 September 20, Eric Wilson, “Blame It on Rio and Gisele”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 18 September 2020:

     They thought of, I don’t know, monkeys and caipirinhas and samba.”

   • 2022 February 7, Jonathan Blitzer, “How Caetano Veloso Revolutionized Brazil’s Sound and Spirit”, in The New Yorker‎^[3], →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 February 2022:

     Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888; until then, Bahia had been a major hub of the country’s slave trade. Samba started there for a reason—a fact that Veloso has returned to, obsessively, throughout his career. […] “A samba parade had turned into a brawl,” a reviewer wrote in the Times, adding that the music “suggested a more cool-headed, grown-up epilogue to the shocks of Tropicália.”

samba (third-person singular simple present sambas, present participle sambaing, simple past and past participle sambaed)

1. To dance the samba.
   • 2022 February 7, Jonathan Blitzer, “How Caetano Veloso Revolutionized Brazil’s Sound and Spirit”, in The New Yorker‎^[4], →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 February 2022:

     In front of an audience, he tends to have a freer conversation with himself. The right conditions turn him into an extrovert. He sambas, in the Santo Amaro style.

• samba on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• ambas, bamas

Akin to Malay sembah and Tagalog simba.

samba

1. to worship

• IPA^(key): /samˈba/ [samˈba]
• Hyphenation: sam‧ba

sambá (Basahan spelling ᜐᜋ᜔ᜊ)

1. worship

Borrowed from Portuguese samba.

samba f

1. samba (dance)

• “samba”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)
• “samba”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

samba

1. genitive singular of sammas

From Portuguese samba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɑmbɑ/, [ˈs̠ɑ̝mbɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -ɑmbɑ
• Syllabification^(key): sam‧ba
• Hyphenation^(key): sam‧ba

samba

1. samba

• “samba”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[5] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

Borrowed from Portuguese samba.

• IPA^(key): /sɑ̃.ba/

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

samba m (plural sambas)

1. samba (dance)

• “samba”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From Portuguese samba.

samba m or f (plural sambas)

1. samba

• “samba”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
• “samba”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026

Borrowed from Portuguese samba m.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsam.ba/^[1]
• Rhymes: -amba
• Hyphenation: sàm‧ba

samba f or (careful style) m (plural sambe f or (careful style) samba m^[1]) (music, dance)

1. samba

• samba in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

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From Byzantine Greek *σάμβατον (*sámbaton), from Ancient Greek σάββατον (sábbaton), borrowed from Aramaic שַׁבְּתָא. Cognates include Greek Σάββατο (Sávvato).

samba n

1. Saturday

Borrowed from Portuguese samba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsam.ba/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -amba
• Syllabification: sam‧ba

samba f

1. samba

• samba in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• samba in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• Audio (Brazil (Caipira)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɐ̃bɐ
• Hyphenation: sam‧ba

Probably of Bantu origin, possibly Kongo semba (“belly-bump”), the name of a dance; if so, a doublet of semba. More at Samba.

samba m (plural sambas)

1. samba (Brazilian genre of music and dance)
   • 1963, “Mas Que Nada”, in Samba Esquema Novo, performed by Jorge Ben:

     Eu quero passar / Pois o samba está animado / O que eu quero é sambar.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

samba

1. inflection of sambar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Samba”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
• “samba”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

• “samba”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “samba”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• IPA^(key): [sà.ᵐbà(ʔ)]
• Hyphenation: sam‧ba

samba (stem -samba-)

1. trout

• Keren Rice (1989), A Grammar of Slave, Berlin, West Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 64

Borrowed from Portuguese samba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsamba/ [ˈsãm.ba]
• Rhymes: -amba
• Syllabification: sam‧ba

samba f (plural sambas)

1. samba

• “samba”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

From Portuguese samba.

samba c

1. samba

• samba in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• samba in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• samba in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Borrowed from Malay sembah, possibly from Javanese ꦱꦼꦩ꧀ꦧꦃ (sembah),^[1] from Old Javanese sĕmbah, possibly from Old Khmer saṃbaḥ ~ sambaḥ; whence Khmer សំពះ (sɑmpĕəh). Doublet of simba.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /samˈba/ [sɐmˈba]
• Rhymes: -a
• Syllabification: sam‧ba

sambá (Baybayin spelling ᜐᜋ᜔ᜊ)

1. worship; adoration

   Synonym: pagsamba

2. spiritual belief

   Synonyms: sampalataya, pananampalataya, pagsasampalataya

Borrowed from English samba, from Brazilian Portuguese samba, from a Bantu language.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈsamba/ [ˈsam.bɐ]
• Rhymes: -amba
• Syllabification: sam‧ba

samba (Baybayin spelling ᜐᜋ᜔ᜊ)

1. samba (music and dance)

• “samba”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018

Borrowed from French samba or from Brazilian Portuguese samba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsam.ba/
• Hyphenation: sam‧ba

samba (definite accusative sambayı, plural sambalar)

1. samba

• “samba”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “samba”, in Nişanyan Sözlük