Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A music entertainment system providing prerecorded accompaniment to popular songs that a performer sings live, usually by following the words on a video screen.
- noun The performance of such music.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable A form of
entertainment popular inclubs , atparties , etc, in which individual members of thepublic sing along topre-recorded instrumental versions of popular songs, thelyrics of which aredisplayed for thesinger on ascreen in time with themusic .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun singing popular songs accompanied by a recording of an orchestra (usually in bars or nightclubs)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A particular pet hate is reality television, above all music talent shows like "The X Factor," which he described as "karaoke competitions."
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Just having RZA come on stage and sing karaoke is pretty crazy.
Farihah Zaman: 2010 Fantastic Fest #4: Interview with Tim League Farihah Zaman 2010
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Just having RZA come on stage and sing karaoke is pretty crazy.
Farihah Zaman: 2010 Fantastic Fest #4: Interview With Tim League Farihah Zaman 2010
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I don't think you can call that karaoke ... karaoke is singing with instruments, preferably original tracks without the vocals.
UltraStar Deluxe Turns Your PC Into A Serious Karaoke Machine | Lifehacker Australia 2009
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Songs can be broken down into vocals and instrumentation for use in karaoke games.
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Just having RZA come on stage and sing karaoke is pretty crazy.
Farihah Zaman: 2010 Fantastic Fest #4: Interview with Tim League Farihah Zaman 2010
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The New Dominion Chorale offers one answer with its annual summer sings: four weeks of what one might term karaoke choral music, where everyone shows up with a score (or rents one on the spot) and reads through some of the greatest choral literature.
DIY music 2010
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Sunday, October 7, 2007 4: 20: 00 AM CDT kat said ... oh god, deaf karaoke is almost as fantastic as the mom song!
MY KNEES (PART TWO -- SURGERY AND REHAB) Maggie Jochild 2007
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And the weird thing about karaoke is that the better you are, the less likely people are to pay attention to you.
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The traditional cool take on karaoke is that anyone can sing at them, so why bother?
whichbe commented on the word karaoke
Karaoke means 'empty orchestra' in Japanese.
May 7, 2008
dontcry commented on the word karaoke
Perfect!
May 7, 2008
cbbudman commented on the word karaoke
The mis-pronunciation of karaoke as continued by American Heritage was started by a radio DJ many years ago because he was to lazy to find out how to properly say the word. Listeners assumed he knew what he was saying and followed his example. After pronouncing the first letter A as an AH, you can't change the sound of the second A to be an EE. It has to stay the same. My Japanese friend told me twenty years ago when I asked about the way the DJ was saying it that the correct pronunciation is KAH RAH O KEE.
June 15, 2010