mazurka
/məˈzʊə(ɹ)kə/noun
mazurka is a noun meaning “A traditional Polish folk dance in triple time, usually moderately fast, containing a heavy accent on the third beat and occasionally the second beat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-A-Z-U-R-K-A, and it appears about once in every 14 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of mazurka is mazurkas.
What does mazurka mean?
noun
- 1
A traditional Polish folk dance in triple time, usually moderately fast, containing a heavy accent on the third beat and occasionally the second beat.
- 2
A classical musical composition inspired by the folk dance and conforming in some respects to its form, particularly as popularized by Chopin.
- 3
A figure skating move that combines elements of the toe loop and bunny-hop.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce mazurka?
- /məˈzʊə(ɹ)kə/
- /məˈzɜː(ɹ)kə/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mazurka.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mazurka
- mazurkas plural
- mazourka
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is mazurka?
Mazurka appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 114,361st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Mazurka in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense dance:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does mazurka come from?
Via German Mazurka and Russian мазу́рка (mazúrka), from Polish mazurek (“dance of the Masurian”), the Masurians being the inhabitants of Mazowsze (compare Medieval Latin Mazovia), an ancient cultural region in east-central Poland.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).