Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to verse that is intended to be sung, especially Greek lyric verse of the seventh to fifth century B.C.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining to song; intended to be sung: applied especially to the more elaborate form of Greek lyric poetry, as distinguished from iambic and elegiac poetry.
- n. A plant of the genus Melica.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of various grasses, of the genus Melica, from north temperate regions
- adj. Of or pertaining to Greek lyric verse
GNU Webster's 1913
- Of or pertaining to song; lyric; tuneful.
Etymologies
- Greek melikos, from melos, song. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Lyric poetry, properly defined, was a distinct branch of what was classified as "melic" poetry (the term roughly translates as "melody" or "air"), strictly differentiated from poetic genres that were meant to be recited without instrumentation or performed with other instruments such as the flute and the oboe-like aulos.”
“The symposium was a clubby bastion of the aristocratic male citizenry, but as Ewen Bowie writes in The Oxford History of the Classical World, "melic poetry was at home everywhere," and there is evidence to suggest that rounds of lyric poetry became a standard form of entertainment at after-dinner soirees all across the Aegean archipelago.”
“Here we have the smooth-stalked meadow grass, and here is the hedge wood-melic grass, with its slightly drooping panicle, and spikelets on long slender footstalks.”
“Roots of the purple melic grass (_Molinia cærulea_).”
“Younger, in distinction to Diodorus Zonas, is mentioned as a friend of his own by Strabo, and was a historian and melic poet besides being an epigrammatist.”
“Hugh de Nonant, the new bishop of Coventry, one Confessor's Day had begun saying the introit, when his Lincoln namesake lifted up his voice and began the long melic intonation.”
Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England
“Spreaders like Japanese bloodgrass and hakonechloa give better coverage, clumpers like blue fescue and hairy melic can punctuate a design.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘melic’.
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phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
mabble, mabsoot, macadamize, macarism, macarize, macaronic, macerate, macerator, machair, machairodont, machicolation, machinule and 898 more...
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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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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Words from Goethe's Italian Journey
melic, ostler, brazier, tenterhooks, pannier, cortege, bier, pall, cloister, biretta, tonsured, lazzarone and 27 more...
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Poetry Terms
April is National Poetry Month. Add your favorite poetry terms to this new list!
alliteration, anapest, alexandrine, caesura, assonance, ballad, blank verse, iamb, conceit, couplet, consonance, dactyl and 30 more...
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wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
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Having: C; m; e
Goodies pulled from a list I've compiled of most-every word having these letters in common — It's going take to take a long, long time to actually get through (and I may want to extend it lat...
chamber, chimney, compesce, imperch, ipom�ic, lambency, premier cru, recumbence, simnelcake, succumbence, umbeschew, almacle and 631 more...
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7756 more...
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Words that Sing
euphoniousness, leitmotif, baritone, singer, a cappella, basso profundo, da capo aria, mellifluous, melic, phat, resonate, plunked and 6 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for melic.

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