musical chairs
noun
Simple meaning
A child's game in which players march to music around a group of chairs that contains one chair less than the number of players.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
myoozihkuhlchehrzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmjuzɪkəlˈtʃɛɹz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
children's games
A child's game in which players march to music around a group of chairs that contains one chair less than the number of players; when the music abruptly stops the players scramble to sit and the player who does not find a chair is eliminated; then a chair is removed and the march resumes until only the winner is seated
children's games
A children's game in which players circle a group of chairs. There is one chair fewer than the number of players. When someone who is not watching stops playing music, everybody sits down, and the player left without a chair is eliminated.
figuratively
Any activity which results in repeated, pointless shuffling of people or objects.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A child's game in which players march to music around a group of chairs that contains one chair less than the number of players; when the music abruptly stops the players scramble to sit and the player who does not find a chair is eliminated; then a chair is removed and the march resumes until only the winner is seated
Used this way, musical chairs is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Sudden and forceful
- Usage feel
- Blunt and forceful
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “musical chairs” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.