Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Responsive or antiphonal singing or chanting.
- n. A composition that is sung responsively; an antiphon.
- n. A responsive or reciprocal interchange, as of ideas or opinions: "Sheridan's play shows both sides of the coin. He establishes an antiphony of cynicism and sentimentality” ( Jonathan Miller).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Alternate or responsive singing, in which a choir is divided into two, each part singing alternate verses of the psalm or anthem: opposed to homophony
- n. In responsorial singing, on the contrary, one singer alternates with the whole choir, as in the chanting of responsories. See responsory.
- n. A psalm or an anthem so chanted.
- n. A composition of several verses taken from different psalms and set to music.
Wiktionary
- n. music alternate, or responsive singing by a choir split into two parts; a piece sung or chanted in this manner
- n. alternate, or responsive ideas or opinions; juxtaposition
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A musical response; also, antiphonal chanting or signing.
- n. An anthem or psalm sung alternately by a choir or congregation divided into two parts. Also figuratively.
WordNet 3.0
- n. alternate (responsive) singing by a choir in two parts
- n. a verse or song to be chanted or sung in response
Examples
“The two took up a kind of antiphony, one against the other, now rising in volume, now dying down to a low grumble, again suddenly bursting like an explosion.”
“The cathedral, of course, always adds powerfully to the atmospherics at work - whether wrapping an evocative halo around the divided-chorus antiphony in Elizabeth Poston's "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" during Saturday's opening Advent wreath procession, or providing crisp reverberation to the athletically virtuosic brass-quintet playing from members of the Washington Symphonic Brass.”
“Shelley takes this scene of boundless audition to the Alps, and replays it with a sense of poetry aspiring, not to tame, but to run wild with antiphony and metrical disorder:”
“And there followed the antiphony of ardour that finds its first utterance — a subdued music, often interrupted, ever returning upon the same rich note.”
“And ever, as we marched, could the voices of Boev and the old soldier be heard speaking in antiphony, like two pipes being fluted by one and the same pair of lips.”
“Over that part of England the winter solstice came down with a bitter antiphony of snow and frost.”
“And so the antiphony of discouragement ended in a laugh.”
“Graves had to listen to an antiphony of praise, sung by Ruth and Mrs. Hilliard.”
“It was the antiphony of the youthful promenaders to the drinkers, the diastole of the heart above the stomach, the _elisire d'amore_ in rivalry with beer.”
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873
“To regard each day, as it dawns, as a "last day," and to make of its sunrise, of its noon, of its sun-setting, a rhythmic antiphony to the eternal gods -- this is to live in the spirit of the "grand style.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘antiphony’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Figuratively
Words with definitions containing "figuratively."
spore, plunge, fulminate, rasp, hinge, niche, breathe, approach, hammer, rain, butcher, dazzle and 132 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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Words of Whimsy & Grace
abecedary, addendum, ampersand, anachronism, avuncular, balderdash, barnacle, befuddle, behemoth, bejeebers, blabbermouth, blatherskite and 465 more...
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Lolita
Words compiled while reading Lolita
lolita, solecism, cognomen, etiolate, tendresse, expiatory, filch, paroxysm, arabesques, sibilant, manque, uranist and 181 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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relevance's Words
preantepenultimate, susurrus, syzygy, malign, carbuncular, floccinaucinihili..., petrichor, vegetal, antiphony, gateau, salutary, rambunctious and 5 more...
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strangebeasty's Words
flense, versatile, razor, jade, antiphony, diaphonous, euphony, cacophony, janissary, juno, maverick, dobro and 38 more...
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