Standard Lemma guide

raï

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • /ɹaɪ/
  • /ɹʌiː/
  • rhymes with -aɪ

1

noun

Meaning 1

A form of music, originating in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • 1997: Karen Fog Olwig & Kirsten Hastrup, Siting Culture: The Shifting Anthropological Object — chapter 3: “Which world? On the diffusion of Algerian raï to the West” (by Marc Schade-Poulsen), p59: INTRODUCTION →ISBN (10); →ISBN (13))^† This chapter deals with raï music from Algeria. Since its emergence in the late 1970s, raï has spread throughout the world and stands today as an exponent of “World Music”. The chapter traces a transnational process that has taken place in the 1980s: the diffusion of raï from the cabarets of Oran (the second largest city of Algeria) to the stereo racks in the West. It evokes the existence of different places and spaces for the consumption of raï.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From French raï, from Algerian Arabic راي (rāy, “opinion”), from Arabic رَأْي (raʔy, “opinion”).