Definition of "mambo" [mambo]

• A dance of Latin American origin, resembling the rumba. (noun)
• The syncopated music for this dance in 4/4 time. (noun)
• To perform this dance. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Orestes wrote the first song with the word mambo in the title in 1938 and he told me that he wrote it for his brother."
• "Taken from four decades of popular dance, "Neighborhood Ballroom" is a major production piece, ranging from Belle Époque serenity to a wild Latin American mambo show, all viewed through the lens of a night club denizen known as the Poet."
• "Is it any surprise, then, that a Cuban bandleader enamored of the Kenton band would abandon the rumba for a bombastic new variation called the mambo?"