melody

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“
Pupils of this sort know as much as the greatest masters, and the melody is as fine as could be made.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun A pleasing succession or arrangement of sounds.
  2. noun Musical quality: the melody of verse.
  3. noun Music A rhythmically organized sequence of single tones so related to one another as to make up a particular phrase or idea.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Each performance, however, the slow movement was infused with a bit more sense of struggle, some wish…I came to realize that every so often my mind darts again to the left hand, which is doing some part of the ritornello, the ground … its unrelenting presence and movement under my melody is a powerful thing.
  • Up speaks one suffering with a deadly hurt to the other: “Friend, when I am dead, bury me in my native France, with my cross of honor on my breast, and my musket in my hand, and lay my good sword by my side.” Until this time the melody has been a slow and dirge-like stave in the minor key. —  Great Italian and French Composers
  • His lyrics are filled with good intentions and sometimes the melody is a little darker, but it fits completely with Urban's artistic style and symbolizes what he has gone through with the releasing of his last album. —  Badger Herald: News Updates
  • Composed in Spanish Basque country in the 1860s, the melody has been adapted by scores of countries and cultures over the past century and a half. —  Twitch
  • His stories are woven between guitar strings, and the melody is the bind that keeps it all together. —  Mammoth Press
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

tune ·  song ·  harmony ·  rhythm ·  sweetness ·  hymn ·  chord ·  chorus ·  strain ·  beauty ·  chant ·  poetry

Used in the same contextWord Family

melody:   melodies
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English melodie, from Old French, from Late Latin melōdia, from Greek melōidiā, singing, choral song : melos, tune + aoidē, song; see wed-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English melody, melodye (= Dutch melodie = German melodie, melodei = Danish Swedish melodi), from Old French melodie, French melodie = Spanish melodía = Portuguese Italian melodia, from Late Latin melodia, from Greek μελῳδία, a singing, a tune to which lyric poetry is set, from μελῳδός, (later Late Latin melodus), singing, musical, from μέλος, song, strain, melody, + ᾠδή, song, ode: see ode. Cf. comedy.
 

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/ˈmɛlədi/
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