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harmony

- 5 dictionary results

har⋅mo⋅ny

[hahr-muh-nee]
–noun, plural -nies.
1. agreement; accord; harmonious relations.
2. a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts; congruity.
3. Music.
a. any simultaneous combination of tones.
b. the simultaneous combination of tones, esp. when blended into chords pleasing to the ear; chordal structure, as distinguished from melody and rhythm.
c. the science of the structure, relations, and practical combination of chords.
4. an arrangement of the contents of the Gospels, either of all four or of the first three, designed to show their parallelism, mutual relations, and differences.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME armonye < MF < L harmonia < Gk harmonía joint, framework, agreement, harmony, akin to hárma chariot, harmós joint, ararískein to join together


1. concord, unity, peace, amity, friendship. 2. consonance, conformity, correspondence, consistency. See symmetry. 3. Harmony, melody in music suggest a combination of sounds from voices or musical instruments. Harmony is the blending of simultaneous sounds of different pitch or quality, making chords: harmony in part singing; harmony between violins and horns. Melody is the rhythmical combination of successive sounds of various pitch, making up the tune or air: a tuneful melody to accompany cheerful words.
har·mo·ny   (här'mə-nē)   
n.   pl. har·mo·nies
  1. Agreement in feeling or opinion; accord: live in harmony.
  2. A pleasing combination of elements in a whole: color harmony; the order and harmony of the universe. See Synonyms at proportion.
  3. Music
    1. The study of the structure, progression, and relation of chords.
    2. Simultaneous combination of notes in a chord.
    3. The structure of a work or passage as considered from the point of view of its chordal characteristics and relationships.
    4. A combination of sounds considered pleasing to the ear.
  4. A collation of parallel passages, especially from the Gospels, with a commentary demonstrating their consonance and explaining their discrepancies.

[Middle English armonie, from Old French, from Latin harmonia, from Greek harmoniā, articulation, agreement, harmony, from harmos, joint; see ar- in Indo-European roots.]

Harmony

Har"mo*ny\, n.; pl. Harmonies. [ F. harmonic, L. harmonia, Gr. ? joint, proportion, concord, fr. ? a fitting or joining. See Article. ]

1. The just adaptation of parts to each other, in any system or combination of things, or in things, or things intended to form a connected whole; such an agreement between the different parts of a design or composition as to produce unity of effect; as, the harmony of the universe.

2. Concord or agreement in facts, opinions, manners, interests, etc.; good correspondence; peace and friendship; as, good citizens live in harmony.

3. A literary work which brings together or arranges systematically parallel passages of historians respecting the same events, and shows their agreement or consistency; as, a harmony of the Gospels.

4. (Mus.) (a) A succession of chords according to the rules of progression and modulation. (b) The science which treats of their construction and progression.

Ten thousand harps, that tuned Angelic harmonies. --Milton.

5. (Anat.) See Harmonic suture, under Harmonic.

Close harmony, Dispersed harmony, etc. See under Close, Dispersed, etc.

Harmony of the spheres. See Music of the spheres, under Music.

Syn: Harmony, Melody.

Usage: Harmony results from the concord of two or more strains or sounds which differ in pitch and quality. Melody denotes the pleasing alternation and variety of musical and measured sounds, as they succeed each other in a single verse or strain.
Language Translation for : harmony
Spanish: armonía,
German: der Einklang,
Japanese: 和声

harmony

The sounding of two or more musical notes at the same time in a way that is pleasant or desired. Harmony, melody, and rhythm are elements of music.


harmony 
c.1384, from O.Fr. armonie, from L. harmonia, from Gk. harmonia "agreement, concord of sounds," lit. "means of joining," related to harmos "joint, shoulder," from PIE *ar-ti-, from *ar- "to fit together." Musical sense is oldest in Eng.; that of "agreement of feeling, concord" is from 1588.
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