mixtape
Americannoun
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a recording on a cassette tape, CD, or digital medium, consisting of music or songs selected by a single person.
My boyfriend made me the greatest mixtape for my birthday.
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such a recording consisting of music or songs personally selected by the artist, usually a hip-hop artist.
His mixtape from a live performance helped propel him to stardom.
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a recording consisting of blended or recombined tracks, or a series of tracks with smooth transitions, especially one created by a DJ.
Usage
What does mixtape mean? Unlike an official album, a mixtape is a more casual assortment of songs, organized by a listener or created by an artist.
Etymology
Origin of mixtape
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The first iteration of the project was as a mixtape.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026
Each time I tune in—which is every day now—it feels as if someone cooler than me is handing me a mixtape made with care, exactly how finding new music should feel.
From Slate • Apr. 12, 2026
Legxacy is a mercurial figure – a musical polymath, defiantly original, who has largely stopped speaking in public, partly due to the tragic backstory behind his latest mixtape.
From BBC • Jan. 8, 2026
The 24-year-old British singer and producer is nominated for two Grammy Awards with her latest mixtape, ‘Fancy That.’
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025
She’s nerve-racked, because of the waitress and the mixtape and her own certainty that things are always about to go terribly wrong.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
