rave
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A dance party that lasts all night and electronically synthesized music is played.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rayvIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹeɪv
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
A dance party that lasts all night and electronically synthesized music is played
“Raves are very popular in Berlin.”
An all-night dance party with electronic dance music (techno, trance, drum and bass etc.) in small unknown clubs.
musicuncountable
The genres of electronic dance music made to be played in rave parties.
informalcountable
An enthusiastic review (such as of a play).
informalcountable
An extravagantly enthusiastic review
One of the upper side pieces of the frame of a wagon body or a sleigh.
verb
intransitive
To speak or write wildly or incoherently.
intransitive
To be mentally unclear; to be delirious; to talk or act irrationally; to be wild, furious, or raging.
intransitive
To attend a rave (dance party).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A dance party that lasts all night and electronically synthesized music is played
Used this way, rave is a common 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.
“Raves are very popular in Berlin.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use rave
- “Raves are very popular in Berlin.”noun
- “She raved about that new restaurant.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Word Family
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Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.