a style of fast heavy electronic dance music usually without vocals
"The crowd danced all night to the relentless techno beats that filled the underground club."
A repetitive style of music originally produced for use in a continuous DJ set. The central rhythmic component is most often in common time (4/4), where time is marked with a bass drum on each quarter note pulse, a backbeat played by snare or clap on the second and fourth pulses of the bar, and an open hi-hat sounding every second eighth note.
"The club crowd began dancing to the driving techno track, which featured a relentless four-on-the-floor beat with crisp snares on the off-beats."
In plain English: Techno is electronic dance music with a steady, driving beat that people often listen to at clubs and parties.
"The DJ played an upbeat techno track that got everyone dancing on the dance floor."
Usage: Use "techno" to describe electronic dance music characterized by a steady, driving 4/4 beat and repetitive rhythms designed for DJs. Distinguish it from related genres like house or trance based on its darker tone and mechanical sound rather than using the term as an adjective before other nouns unless referring specifically to this style of production.
Techno is a clipped form of the word technology that entered English as a shortened version to describe electronic dance music. While it originally referred broadly to applied science and engineering, its specific musical meaning emerged later through this truncation.