melody
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See also: Melody
English
Etymology
From Middle English melodie, melodye, from Old French melodie, from Latin melodia, from Ancient Greek μελῳδίᾱ (melōidíā, “singing, chanting”), from μέλος (mélos, “musical phrase”) + ἀοιδή (aoidḗ, “song”), contracted form ᾠδή (ōidḗ).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɛl.ə.di/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmɛl.ə.di/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
melody (plural melodies)
- A sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase
- 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], “The Sayings of Slid (whose Soul is by the Sea)”, in The Gods of Pegāna, London: Elkin Mathews, , →OCLC, page 15:
- There is a melody upon the Earth as though ten thousand streams all sang together for their homes that they had forsaken in the hills.
- 1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 1, in The Subtle Minotaur:
- Slowly she turned round and faced towards a neat white bungalow, set some way back from the path behind a low hedge of golden privet. No light showed, but someone there was playing the piano. The strange elusiveness of the soft, insistent melody seemed to draw her forward.
Synonyms
- (sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase): tune
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase
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