samba
Portuguese, noun/ˈsɐ̃.bɐ/
samba is spelled S-A-M-B-A (5 letters) and appears 35 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 2,566th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Samba is a Portuguese masculine noun meaning “samba (Brazilian genre of music and dance)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a third-person singular present indicative of sambar. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “dança de roda semelhante ao batuque, com dançarinos solistas e eventual presença da umbigada, difundida em…”.
What does samba mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinesamba (Brazilian genre of music and dance)
verb
- 1
third-person singular present indicative
- 2
second-person singular imperative
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
noun: 1. dança de roda semelhante ao batuque, com dançarinos solistas e eventual presença da umbigada, difundida em todo o Brasil com variantes coreográficas e de acompanhamento instrumental 2. qualquer baile popular, urbano ou rural, onde geralmente predomina o samba como música; arrasta-pé 3. gênero de canção popular de ritmo geralmente 2/4 e andamento variado, surgido a partir do início do século XX 4. variedade de xiba (baile rural sapateado)
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of samba
- sambas plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce samba?
- Brazil /ˈsɐ̃.bɐ/
- Portugal /ˈsɐ̃.bɐ/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to samba
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is samba in Portuguese?
samba appears 35 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).