hopak

/ˈhoːpæk/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: hopak
IPA: /ˈhoːpæk/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A Ukrainian national dance in 2/4 time.

Example Sentences

"Somewhere an accordion was playing a jazz-inflected hopak."
"Another explicitly 'joyful' item in my collection is the 1963 Services and Fares brochure, featuring train and ferry timetables to London (and back) from Czechoslovakia, Poland and the USSR, with a happy hopak-dancing Ukrainian cossack in a traditional Ukrainian vishivanka shirt and wide sharovari pants on the cover."

Etymology

1925–30, from Ukrainian гопа́к (hopák), from the interjection гоп (hop). Compare Ukrainian го́пати (hópaty), го́пкати (hópkaty), гопцюва́ти (hopcjuváty), го́пки (hópky), and dated Ukrainian го́пи (hópy, “dance steps”), го́пка (hópka, “child (jocular)”).

Word Breakdown

Root: гопа́к

Inflected Forms

hopaks (plural) gopak (alternative)

Questions

How do you pronounce hopak?

The recorded pronunciation is /ˈhoːpæk/.

What does hopak mean?

A Ukrainian national dance in 2/4 time.

Where does hopak come from?

How to pronounce hopak

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “hopak”.

Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈhoːpæk/) so you know which sounds to aim for.

Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “hopak”.

Repeat and practice — Say “hopak” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.