"musical chairs" meaning in English

See musical chairs in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} musical chairs (uncountable)
  1. (games) A children's game in which players circle a group of chairs. There is one chair fewer than the number of players. When someone who is not watching stops playing music, everybody sits down, and the player left without a chair is eliminated. Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Games Translations (game): 音樂椅 (Chinese Mandarin), 音乐椅 (yīnyuèyǐ) (Chinese Mandarin), stoelendans [masculine] (Dutch), tuolileikki (Finnish), chaises musicales [feminine, plural] (French), Reise nach Jerusalem [feminine] (German), gioco della sedia [masculine] (Italian), gorące krzesła [neuter, plural] (Polish), dança das cadeiras [feminine] (Portuguese), музыка́льные сту́лья (muzykálʹnyje stúlʹja) [masculine, plural] (Russian), juego de las sillas [masculine] (Spanish), sillita musical (Spanish), sillas musicales (Spanish), baile de las sillas [Argentina] (Spanish), hela havet stormar (Swedish), เก้าอี้ดนตรี (gâo-îi-don-dtrii) (Thai), sandalye kapmaca (Turkish)
    Sense id: en-musical_chairs-en-noun-1j8fNFBG Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 73 27 Topics: games Disambiguation of 'game': 100 0
  2. (figuratively) Any activity which results in repeated, pointless shuffling of people or objects. Tags: figuratively, uncountable Translations (figuratively: activity of shuffling people): stoelendans [masculine] (Dutch), tuolileikki (Finnish), hela havet stormar (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-musical_chairs-en-noun-R6MWUggK Disambiguation of 'figuratively: activity of shuffling people': 12 88

Download JSON data for musical chairs meaning in English (4.5kB)

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        "A children's game in which players circle a group of chairs. There is one chair fewer than the number of players. When someone who is not watching stops playing music, everybody sits down, and the player left without a chair is eliminated."
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        "(games) A children's game in which players circle a group of chairs. There is one chair fewer than the number of players. When someone who is not watching stops playing music, everybody sits down, and the player left without a chair is eliminated."
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        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "game",
          "word": "音樂椅"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "cmn",
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          "roman": "yīnyuèyǐ",
          "sense": "game",
          "word": "音乐椅"
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        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
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          "tags": [
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          "word": "stoelendans"
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          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "game",
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          "code": "fr",
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        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "game",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
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          "word": "Reise nach Jerusalem"
        },
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          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "game",
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            "masculine"
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          "sense": "game",
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          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "pt",
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          "sense": "game",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "dança das cadeiras"
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        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "muzykálʹnyje stúlʹja",
          "sense": "game",
          "tags": [
            "masculine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "музыка́льные сту́лья"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "game",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "juego de las sillas"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "game",
          "word": "sillita musical"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "game",
          "word": "sillas musicales"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "game",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "baile de las sillas"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "game",
          "word": "hela havet stormar"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "th",
          "lang": "Thai",
          "roman": "gâo-îi-don-dtrii",
          "sense": "game",
          "word": "เก้าอี้ดนตรี"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "game",
          "word": "sandalye kapmaca"
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        {
          "ref": "2022 October 7, Emma Goldberg, “The Job Market Has Been Like Musical Chairs. Will the Music Stop?”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "The job market last year and earlier in 2022 was like musical chairs, offering record opportunities for hopping from seat to seat. Now many feel that the music is about to stop.",
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        "Any activity which results in repeated, pointless shuffling of people or objects."
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        "(figuratively) Any activity which results in repeated, pointless shuffling of people or objects."
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        },
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          "_dis1": "12 88",
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          "_dis1": "12 88",
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          "sense": "figuratively: activity of shuffling people",
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        "A children's game in which players circle a group of chairs. There is one chair fewer than the number of players. When someone who is not watching stops playing music, everybody sits down, and the player left without a chair is eliminated."
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      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "game",
      "word": "音樂椅"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "yīnyuèyǐ",
      "sense": "game",
      "word": "音乐椅"
    },
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      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
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      "word": "stoelendans"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "game",
      "word": "tuolileikki"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "chaises musicales"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Reise nach Jerusalem"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "gioco della sedia"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
        "neuter",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "gorące krzesła"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "dança das cadeiras"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "muzykálʹnyje stúlʹja",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
        "masculine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "музыка́льные сту́лья"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "juego de las sillas"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "game",
      "word": "sillita musical"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "game",
      "word": "sillas musicales"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "game",
      "tags": [
        "Argentina"
      ],
      "word": "baile de las sillas"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "game",
      "word": "hela havet stormar"
    },
    {
      "code": "th",
      "lang": "Thai",
      "roman": "gâo-îi-don-dtrii",
      "sense": "game",
      "word": "เก้าอี้ดนตรี"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "game",
      "word": "sandalye kapmaca"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "figuratively: activity of shuffling people",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "stoelendans"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "figuratively: activity of shuffling people",
      "word": "tuolileikki"
    },
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      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "figuratively: activity of shuffling people",
      "word": "hela havet stormar"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
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  ],
  "word": "musical chairs"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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