: a style of rock music influenced by punk rock and featuring introspective and emotionally fraught lyrics
In emo, the heart forever hurts, and the ultra-introspective songwriter pines for beautiful death.—
Robert Sullivan
Robert Sullivan
emo
adjective
The film is sensitively directed, full of emo songs and quiet little character moments.
—Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
Examples of emo in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The emo favorites’ latest top 40 hit is a cover, the original of which appeared in the 1992 film The Muppet Christmas Carol.
—Lars Brandle, Billboard, 26 Dec. 2025
The lyrics have the same anesthetized ennui as in emo rap and the new wave of online rock, but the beats are menacingly new and dead-set on defacing your consciousness.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 17 Dec. 2025
The serum bottle and applicator brush also feature a super simple design that is similar to applying liquid eyeliner—something that my former emo teen self knows a lot about, despite choosing more au naturale makeup in my 30s.
—Jessie Quinn, StyleCaster, 15 Dec. 2025
But the tunefulness and, well, enunciation showcased on his third album, Jump Out, are equally related to Chicago drill melodicists like Sicko Mobb, and closer in content and delivery to emo-rap crooners and the hazy absurdism of the Pack than rage.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
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Lars Brandle, Billboard, 26 Dec. 2025
The lyrics have the same anesthetized ennui as in emo rap and the new wave of online rock, but the beats are menacingly new and dead-set on defacing your consciousness.
—Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 17 Dec. 2025
The serum bottle and applicator brush also feature a super simple design that is similar to applying liquid eyeliner—something that my former emo teen self knows a lot about, despite choosing more au naturale makeup in my 30s.
—Jessie Quinn, StyleCaster, 15 Dec. 2025
But the tunefulness and, well, enunciation showcased on his third album, Jump Out, are equally related to Chicago drill melodicists like Sicko Mobb, and closer in content and delivery to emo-rap crooners and the hazy absurdism of the Pack than rage.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for emo
Cite this Entry
“Emo.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emo. Accessed 31 Dec. 2025.
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