Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something outstanding of its kind.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal An outstanding, extreme, or outrageous example of its kind.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From lallapalootza, lollypaloozer

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lollapalooza.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I remember hearing that this word was used by American soldiers in Japan during WWII as a code word since it was so difficult for Japanese soldiers to pronounce. ("Roraparooza.") Any truth to this?

    October 5, 2007

  • Just checked OED and it gives an origin date of 1904, skipvia--only spelled lallapaloosa at the time. :-)

    October 5, 2007

  • Wow, skipvia. I, too, wanna know how true it is. Seems like if the word was around since 1904, it's at least possible. Hmm.

    October 5, 2007

  • "There are two pips in a beaut, four beauts in a lulu, eight lulus in a doozy, and sixteen doozies in a humdinger. No one knows how many humdingers

    there are in a lollapalooza."

    - George Carlin.

    June 11, 2008