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riff

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riff¹

  • /ɹɪf/

Sounds like Rif · Rhymes with -ɪf

Where it comes from

Uncertain. Perhaps a clipping of riffle, or an alteration of refrain.

noun riffs

  1. A repeated melody line in a song, usually instrumental but sometimes vocal. Listen to one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time!
  2. A clever or witty remark. Pope Francis delivers off-the-cuff riff on family life
  3. A variation on something. Both the Orbit and the Pinnacle are riffs on an idea sketched out in 1917 by Vladimir Tatlin for a monument to international communism.
  4. A spoof. The creative team has experience with spoofing: Both [Paul] Rudd and [Amy] Poehler had parts in [David] Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, a hysterically irreverent riff on ’80s summer-camp comedies.

verb riffs · riffing · riffed

  1. To improvise in the performance or practice of an art, especially by expanding on or making novel use of traditional themes. She riffed on the Olympic judges, the bobsled team, then ad-libbed with a woman drinking a martini at the front table.
  2. To riffle. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a wellworn deck of cards. He hated Saturday duty. He cut the deck and riffed the two halves together.
  3. To tell jokes over a movie or similar performance. Most MSTers confine their "riffing" to original fan fiction rather than scripts from corporate-owned entertainment properties, which renders such twice-removed MSTing somewhat toothless: the cannibalizing parody of a pastiche.

    Similar: MST

riff²

  • /ɹɪf/

Sounds like Rif · Rhymes with -ɪf

Where it comes from

From Middle English *rif (found only in midrif), from Old English hrif (“the belly; womb”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrif, from Proto-Germanic *hrefaz (“body; torso; belly”), from Proto-Indo-European *krep- (“body”). Distant doublet of corpus, corpse, and corse.

noun riffs

  1. archaic The belly; the bowels.

Riff³

proper noun

  1. alternative Alternative form of Rif (“mountains in Morocco”).

RIFF⁴

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, acronym Acronym of Resource Interchange File Format

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: flick, flip, thumb, riffle, riffian, leaf, raff, riffer, rhapsody, rasgueo, riff-raff, riddim, rippler, rhythm guitar, rhythm, repercussion

Translations

Every language

noun repeated instrumental melody line

Españolriff
日本語リフ rifu
Portuguêsriff
Françaisriff
DeutschRiff, Motiv, Ostinato
Italianoriff, ritornello
Русскиймоти́в motív

noun clever or witty remark

Deutschwitzige Bemerkung

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Cite this
MLA

"riff." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/riff. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

riff. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/riff

Chicago

"riff." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/riff.

BibTeX
@misc{riff_2026,
  title = {riff},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/riff},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}