Riff

How to spell riff

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce riff

What does riff mean?

1. nounA short, repeated pattern of notes that forms a memorable part of a piece of music.
2. verbTo improvise freely, either on an instrument or by spinning variations on an idea or theme.

Riff in a sentence

• noun

  The song opens with a guitar riff that everyone recognises.

• verb

  The comedians would riff on whatever a member of the audience shouted out.

• noun

  The bass player worked out a simple riff to anchor the chorus.

• verb

  In the meeting she liked to riff on the marketing team's rough proposal.

Where does riff come from?

Language of origin: Other

Riff is an American jazz coinage that first appears in print in the 1930s, and its exact origin is genuinely uncertain. The most widely accepted explanation is that it is a clipped and altered form of 'refrain', the recurring section of a song, which itself reached English through Old French from the Latin refringere, meaning 'to break back' or 'break up'. Some musicians and lexicographers instead link it to 'riffle', suggesting the quick, rippling repetition of a phrase. In its musical home it named a short, catchy pattern of notes repeated as a backing or a hook, and it spread from jazz into rock and everyday speech. By the late twentieth century it had grown a figurative life, so that to riff now also means to improvise or spin variations on any idea. Because the word is short and doubles its final 'f', the only real spelling trap is remembering the second 'f', exactly as in 'cliff' and 'stiff'.

How the word is built

• riff (a single unanalysable root; likely a clipped, altered form of 'refrain')