Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Music Of, relating to, or characterized by polyphony.
- adj. Linguistics Having two or more phonetic values.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Capable of being read or pronounced in more than one way: said of a written character.
- Consisting of or having many voices or sounds.
- In music: Noting a method of composition or a work in which two or more voice-parts are simultaneously combined without losing their independent character, but with harmonious effect; contrapuntal: opposed on one side to monodic, monophonic, and homophonic, and on another to harmonic: as, a fugue is a polyphonic form of composition
- Noting an instrument which is capable of producing more than one tone at a time, as an organ or a harp. Also polyphonous.
Wiktionary
- adj. of, or relating to polyphony
- adj. music having two or more independent but harmonic melodies; contrapuntal
- adj. of an electronic device able to play more than one musical note at the same time
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having a multiplicity of sounds.
- adj. Characterized by polyphony.
- adj. (Mus.) Consisting of several tone series, or melodic parts, progressing simultaneously according to the laws of counterpoint; contrapuntal; ; -- opposed to
homophonic , ormonodic .
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having two or more phonetic values
- adj. of or relating to or characterized by polyphony
- adj. having two or more independent but harmonically related melodic parts sounding together
Examples
“I institute quite early what I call polyphonic technic -- one hand doing a different movement or touch from the other.”
“The specialization here is mostly in polyphonic choral music, and, looking through their repertoire, it is dovetails our own pretty closely.”
“In general they may be defined as polyphonic church songs which were to be sung”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability
“Before that time vocal music was generally polyphonic, that is, for several voices; and a contrapuntal style of music had been introduced into Italy from the Netherlands, which was so complicated and artificial that the poetic text had no chance whatever of asserting its rights and being understood.”
“The art music of the time was polyphonic, that is, constructed by so interweaving melodies that harmonies resulted.”
“The basic problem is that most music is polyphonic - in other words, it's made up of several instruments plus percussion and possibly vocals as well.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“This would produce a separate audio output for each string, which can be mixed together, or processed separately for interesting effect (called a polyphonic pickup).”
“A "space symphony" (a kind of more complex and "polyphonic" space opera) about alternate ways of human civilizations 'and personal evolution; different "energetic civilizations", exploration of many planets in the Galaxy, human's body transformation to the wave form, space battles, adventures and etc.”
“Nevertheless, it was Bakhtin who taught us – and Williams reinforces the message in innumerable bits of valuable close reading of the texts – that Dostoevsky is an essentially "polyphonic" writer.”
“If there is a lack in Williams's rich book – and it will certainly be enjoyed by a wide audience and stimulate an eager rereading of Dostoevsky – it is not that it fails to refer to Dostoevsky's journalism (there is plenty of ripe reference to A Writer's Diary), but that it does not confront the problem which this journalism presents to the "polyphonic" reading of the novels.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘polyphonic’.
-
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...
-
MUSIC - jazz
Afro, habanera, pentatonic scale, bop, bebop, jazz, cool jazz, pentatonic, malignment, music genre, jazz musician, syncopate and 437 more...
-
phono-, phon-, -phony
relating to sound
phonograph, phonics, phonology, telephony, phoneme, phone, telephone, phonautograph, phonetic, phonebook, phonography, phonolite and 107 more...
-
Of sounds and voices
tongue, alveolar, plosive, full-voiced, sibilant, hissing, fricative, guttural, wharl, burr, velar, palatalize and 29 more...
-
-ic ending
Words ending in ic, tic or nic.
clastic, elastic, caustic, spastic, frantic, lactic, moronic, ironic, panic, doric, diplomatic, bureaucratic and 202 more...
-
Stumbled Words
A list of words that I stumbled upon while reading.
penumbra, prolix, propitious, resplendence, sepulchral, Weltschmerz, apparition, brigand, probity, chalice, paroxysm, pallor and 160 more...
-
mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
-
Beautiful Music
a cappella, accelerando, accompagnato, adagio, ad libitum, agitato, aleatory, alla breve, allegro, allemande, alto, andante and 548 more...
-
Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
-
MacBean's Words
verisimilitude, antediluvian, schadenfreude, eviscerate, exsanguinate, onomatopoeia, aesthetic, apocryphal, aubergine, byronic, brouhaha, bordello and 523 more...
-
Polymorphously Pretentious Patois
epicurean, hermitage, virago, aplomb, riposte, undulate, calliope, terpsichore, polyphonic, quixotic, sanguine, chimera and 81 more...
-
Sound & Acoustics
intonation, timbre, harmonic distortion, anechoic, surround-sound, amperage, binaural, circumaural, crossfader, reverberative, intermodulation, crosstalk and 22 more...
-
taiwandroo's Words
ennui, aquarian, angst, vacuum, loquacious, queasy, wordie, capricious, whimsical, abscond, metropolis, boob and 63 more...
-
Random list 22/5/2010
Every word I random for the next ten minutes or so will be added to this list.
venturine, tortulous, tweedle, appellatively, vetch, misexplication, intrigante, corresponsive, polyphonic, ramrod, yank, tuscor and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for polyphonic.

Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.