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What did the term Beat mean to Jack Kerouac and other Beat writers?

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Portrait of Jack Kerouac, American novelist and poet, looking over his shoulder in a collared shirt, circa 1965. — Jack Kerouac American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, c. 1965.

For Jack Kerouac and other members of the Beat movement, the term "Beat" carried multiple, evolving layers of meaning. While it originated from the word "beat," meaning exhausted or sapped of morale, the writers expanded its connotations significantly.12

For the Beats, the term also came to imply:

Musicality: A connection to the rhythmic sense found in jazz music.1
Spirituality: A "beatific" quality, reflecting a search for illumination and personal purification.1
Countercultural Identity: A badge of alienation from the "square," or conventional, society, which they viewed as joyless and purposeless.1

By adopting this label, Kerouac and his peers sought to express their lived experiences through a style that prioritized immediacy and raw emotion, often rejecting traditional literary structure in favor of free, spontaneous composition. Their work served as both a form of protest against modern societal norms and a pursuit of heightened sensory awareness through various unconventional paths.1