melody
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (2)melodies
- a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence“she was humming an air from Beethoven”Synonyms: tuneairstrainmelodic linelinemelodic phraseType of musicKinds part, leitmotiv, theme song, signature, roulade, glissando, theme, flourishParts phrase, musical phrase
- the perception of pleasant arrangements of musical notesSynonyms: tonal patternType of musical perception
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Noun tune, sequence of notes
- Spanish
- melodía
- French
- mélodie
- German
- Melodie
- Italian
- melodia
- Portuguese
- melodia
- Turkish
- melodi
- Russian
- мело́дия melódija
- Arabic
- لَحْن laḥn
- Chinese
- 旋律 xuánlǜ
- Japanese
- 旋律 senritsu
33 more languages
- Dutch
- melodie
- Polish
- melodia
- Swedish
- melodi
- Greek
- μελωδία melodía
- Korean
- 멜로디 mellodi
- Indonesian
- melodi
- Vietnamese
- giai điệu
- Hungarian
- melódia
- Portuguese (PT)
- melodia
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 旋律 xuánlǜ
- Albanian
- melodi
- Breton
- kerzenn
- Catalan
- melodia
- Czech
- melodie
- Danish
- melodi
- Esperanto
- melodio
- Estonian
- viis
- Finnish
- melodia
- Georgian
- მელოდია melodia
- Hebrew
- מַנגִינָה manginá
- Icelandic
- lag
- Kurdish
- awaz
- Latvian
- melodija
- Lithuanian
- melodija
- Norwegian
- melodi
- Romanian
- melodie
- Scottish Gaelic
- fonn
- Serbo-Croatian
- melodija
- Slovak
- melódia
- Slovenian
- melodija
- Swahili
- lahani
- Welsh
- alaw
- Yiddish
- מעלאָדיע melodye
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: OE. melodie, F. mélodie, L. melodia, fr. Gr. … a singing, choral song, fr. … musical, melodious; μέλος song, tune + … song. See Ode.
1. A sweet or agreeable succession of sounds.
Lulled with sound of sweetest melody.— William Shakespeare
2. Music A rhythmical succession of single tones, ranging for the most part within a given key, and so related together as to form a musical whole, having the unity of what is technically called a musical thought, at once pleasing to the ear and characteristic in expression.
☞ Melody consists in a succession of single tones; harmony is a consonance or agreement of tones, also a succession of consonant musical combinations or chords.
3. The air or tune of a musical piece.
Synonyms: See Harmony.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54