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View synonyms for melody

melody

1

[ mel-uh-dee ]

noun

, plural mel·o·dies.
  1. musical sounds in agreeable succession or arrangement.
  2. Music.
    1. the succession of single tones in musical compositions, as distinguished from harmony and rhythm.
    2. the principal part in a harmonic composition; the air.
    3. a rhythmical succession of single tones producing a distinct musical phrase or idea.

    Synonyms: theme, descant, song, tune

  3. a poem suitable for singing.
  4. intonation, as of a segment of connected speech.


Melody

2

[ mel-uh-dee ]

noun

  1. a female given name.

melody

/ ˈmɛlədɪ /

noun

  1. music
    1. a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence; tune
    2. the horizontally represented aspect of the structure of a piece of music Compare harmony
  2. sounds that are pleasant because of tone or arrangement, esp words of poetry


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Other Words From

  • melo·dy·less adjective
  • under·melo·dy noun plural undermelodies

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Word History and Origins

Origin of melody1

1250–1300; Middle English melodie from Medieval Latin melōdia from Greek melōidía “(choral) singing,” equivalent to mel- ( melic ) + -ōid- ( ode ) + -ia -y 3

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Word History and Origins

Origin of melody1

C13: from Old French, from Late Latin melōdia, from Greek melōidia singing, from melos song + -ōidia, from aoidein to sing

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Synonym Study

See harmony.

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Example Sentences

The Google Magenta team, which makes machine-learning tools for the creative process, has made models that help you compose melodies, and tools that help you sketch cats.

I’d get a melody in my head and I would wonder if I could turn it into a song.

Without an idea of how neural circuits work and in what sequences, zapping the brain with electricity—no matter how cool the device itself is—is akin to banging on all the keys of a piano at once, rather than composing a beautiful melody.

Similar to a piano melody, a single wrong note may not ruin the entire song—or in the case of glomeruli, the perception of a smell.

Together, the individual spots the researchers stimulated built the perception of the odor, just as a string of notes makes a melody.

A department store piano melody plays in the background while he admires everything he can see.

I had to play melody while simultaneously playing harmony with him.

Arriving at the Melody Ballroom, the atmosphere was a frenzy of joy, jubilation and holy bedlam.

He probably heard the song during a Brazilian tour, and the melody simply stayed in his head.

When Paul McCartney came up with the melody to “Yesterday,” he initially feared that it was an old song that he was recalling.

The flute and the psaltery make a sweet melody, but a pleasant tongue is above them both.

And the singers lifted up their voices, and in the great house the sound of sweet melody was increased.

Don't you remember my saying that Liszt had such an extraordinary way of playing a melody?

The mirth of timbrels hath ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent.

The melody or tune is played on one of the pipes furnished with holes for the purpose, while the other three give a drone, bass.

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melodramatizemeloid