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medley. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
medley, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
medley in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English medle, from Anglo-Norman medlee, Old French medlee, from the feminine past participle of early Medieval Latin misculō (“to mix”). Compare meddle. Doublet of melee.
Pronunciation
Noun
medley (plural medleys)
- (now rare, archaic) Combat, fighting; a battle.
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “lxxj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:Thenne came the kyng of Irland and the kynge of the stryete marches to rescowe syre Tristram and sire Palomydes / There beganne a grete medle / & many knyghtes were smyten doune on bothe partyes / and alweyes sir launcelot spared sir Tristram / and he spared hym- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
1632, Xenophon, translated by Philemon Holland, Cyrupaedia:For greater shields they have, than that they can either doe or see ought, and being raunged by hundreds no doubt they will hinder one another in the medley, except some very few
- A collection or mixture of miscellaneous things.
- a fruit medley
1712 (date written), Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 6:this medley of philosophy and war
1692, William Walsh, Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant:Love is a medley of endearments, jars, / Suspicions, reconcilements, wars.
- (music) A collection of related songs played or mixed together as a single piece.
- They played a medley of favorite folk songs as an encore.
- (swimming) A competitive swimming event that combines the four strokes of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.
- A cloth of mixed colours.
1631, Thomas Fuller, Comment on Ruth , Chapter 1, verses 9, 10, 11:Otherwise , as our Saviour noteth , when the old Cloth was joyned to the new , it made no good medley , but the Rent was made the wors
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
collection or mixture of things
- Armenian: խառնուրդ (hy) (xaṙnurd)
- Bulgarian: смес (bg) f (smes), смесица (bg) (smesica)
- Finnish: sekoitus (fi), yhdistelmä (fi)
- French: mélange (fr) m, salade (fr) f
- Galician: mestura f
- German: Allerlei (de) n, bunte Mischung f, buntes Durcheinander n
- Hungarian: keverék (hu), egyveleg (hu)
- Italian: macedonia (it) f, misto (it) m, miscuglio (it) m, mescolanza (it) f
- Latin: farrāgō f
- Occitan: mescladís (oc) m, barrejadís m, mixtura f
- Persian: آمیزه (fa) (âmiza)
- Plautdietsch: Mischmausch f
- Romanian: amestec (ro) n, amestecătură (ro) f
- Russian: смесь (ru) f (smesʹ), мешани́на (ru) f (mešanína), смеше́ние (ru) n (smešénije)
- Serbo-Croatian: mješavina (sh) f, smjesa (sh) f
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Verb
medley (third-person singular simple present medleys, present participle medleying, simple past and past participle medleyed)
- (music) To combine, to form a medley.
Anagrams
Danish
Etymology
Borrowed from English medley.
Pronunciation
Noun
medley n (singular definite medleyet, plural indefinite medleyer)
- medley (of songs; swimming event)
Carola sang et medley af "Fame" og "Flashdance" ved koncerten.- Carola sang a medley of "Fame" and "Flashdance" at the concert.
Inflection
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from English medley.
Pronunciation
Noun
medley m (plural medleys, diminutive medleytje n)
- several songs strung together
Synonyms
Spanish
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English medley. Doublet of mezclada.
Pronunciation
Noun
medley m (plural medleys)
- medley (songs)
Usage notes
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
Swedish
Etymology
Borrowed from English medley.
Noun
medley n or c
- (music, neuter) medley (song that mixes other songs)
- (swimming, common) medley (competition that mixes different forms of swimming)
Declension
(music):
(swimming):
Further reading