Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. Music To utter a series of words or sounds in musical tones.
- v. Music To vocalize songs or selections.
- v. Music To perform songs or selections as a trained or professional singer.
- v. Music To produce sounds when played: made the violin sing.
- v. To make melodious sounds: birds singing outside the window.
- v. To give or have the effect of melody; lilt.
- v. To make a high whining, humming, or whistling sound.
- v. To be filled with a buzzing or ringing sound.
- v. To proclaim or extol something in verse.
- v. To write poetry.
- v. Slang To give information or evidence against someone.
- v. Music To produce the musical sound of: sang a love song.
- v. Music To utter with musical inflections: She sang the message.
- v. Music To bring to a specified state by singing: sang the baby to sleep.
- v. To intone or chant (parts of the Mass, for example).
- v. To proclaim or extol, especially in verse: sang his praises.
- n. Music A gathering of people for group singing.
- sing out To call out loudly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To utter words or inarticulate sounds in musical succession or with a tone that is musical in quality; chant: said of human beings.
- Specifically, to intone.
- To produce tuneful, musical, or rhythmical sounds: said of certain birds, beasts, and insects, and of various inanimate things: as, singing sands.
- To give out a continuous murmuring, humming, buzzing, or whistling sound.
- To cry out with pain or displeasure; squeal.
- To compose verse; relate or rehearse something in numbers or verse.
- To have the sensation of a continuous humming or ringing sound; ring.
- To be capable of being sung; be adaptable to a musical setting.
- Technically, an oscine passerine bird, whether it can sing or not; any member of the Oscines or Cantatores, many of which are songless.
- To utter in musical sounds or with musical alternations of pitch; chant.
- Specifically, to intone.
- To celebrate with singing, or with some form of sound resembling singing; proclaim musically or resonantly; chant.
- To frame, utter, or declaim in poetic form.
- To celebrate in numbers or verse; describe or glorify in poetry.
- To utter with enthusiasm; celebrate: as, to sing a person's praises on all occasions.
- To usher in or out, attend on, or accompany with singing: as, to sing the old year out and the new year in.
- To bring, send, force, or effect, as any end or change, by singing: as, to sing a child to sleep.
- Synonyms To carol, warble, chant, hymn.
- n. A singing; an entertainment of song.
- n. An abbreviation of singular.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice.
- v. transitive To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization.
- v. slang To confess under interrogation.
- n. A gathering for the purpose of singing songs.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To utter sounds with musical inflections or melodious modulations of voice, as fancy may dictate, or according to the notes of a song or tune, or of a given part (as alto, tenor, etc.) in a chorus or concerted piece.
- v. To utter sweet melodious sounds, as birds do.
- v. To make a small, shrill sound.
- v. To tell or relate something in numbers or verse; to celebrate something in poetry.
- v. obsolete To cry out; to complain.
- v. To utter with musical inflections or modulations of voice.
- v. To celebrate in song; to give praises to in verse; to relate or rehearse in numbers, verse, or poetry.
- v. To influence by singing; to lull by singing.
- v. To accompany, or attend on, with singing.
WordNet 3.0
- v. to make melodious sounds
- v. divulge confidential information or secrets
- v. produce tones with the voice
- v. deliver by singing
- v. make a whining, ringing, or whistling sound
Etymologies
- From Middle English singen, from Old English singan 'to sing, recite', from Proto-Germanic *singwanan (compare West Frisian sjonge, Dutch zingen, German singen, Swedish sjunga), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷh- (compare Welsh deongl 'to explain', Ancient Greek omphē 'voice, oracle', Prakrit saṃghai 'to say, teach'). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English singen, from Old English singan; see sengwh- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“You already know by now that I love to sing and will more often than not..sing at karaoke!”
“Croza would court our daughter, and Piozzi could not talk to Johnson, nor, I suppose, do one any good but sing to one, -- and how should we _sing songs in a strange land_?”
“Consider Edison Pena, a 34-year-old Elvis Presley fanatic who reportedly led other miners in sing-alongs underground.”
“Become great at what you do, then remember that every note you sing is beautiful.”
“I've never heard anyone make a violin sing the way he did," she said in an e-mail.”
The Huffington Post: Tyler Clementi's Suicide Illustrates Internet Dangers
“And the condescending Danny Glover talks down to us in sing-song kids reading circle language made me want to fistfight a nun.”
“I need to hear her voice every single song that she sing is like magical to me”
“I would say the ability to sing from the Parish Book of Chant, or some similar book, is critical.”
“When she realised I could sing and people were commenting on that, she could see that being able to sing is a gift.”
“I used to sing from the hymn book and make up the tunes on a little acoustic guitar, then later I'd sing rambling, mournful poems over minor-key chords.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sing’.
-
FUN - Beatles song titles
Typical words from Beatles song titles. Can you recreate the titles?
(Grammatical words have been omitted)another, three, place, work, eyes, new, said, give, face, day, going, like and 388 more...
-
RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
-
happy words
Words that cheer you up, give you happy thoughts and feelings, or just put you in a positive state of mind.
magic, childhood, dawn, smile, kitten, drizzle, friend, beach, free, love, sweet, cozy and 20 more...
-
Test words
vacation, tourist, tourist office, travel, read, newspaper, book, magazine, television, music, radio, nightclub and 68 more...
-
no little thing
it bothers me when i hear someone who have experienced something life changing use the phrase: now i appreciate the little things. I DON'T BELIEVE THERE ARE ANY LITTLE THINGS. everything is EXTRAOR...
letters, living, understand, narrow, behavior, personal, need, meant, untamed, world, soldier, 'cause and 241 more...
-
Verbs for XKCD936-compliant passphrases
A list of 2048 common English verbs that could be used to create plausible, memorable random phrases.
I'm going to use this list in a password generator, inspired by run, jump, dance, flip, eat, sing, attack, get, try, love -
harmony of the spheres
tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, subtonic, leading tone, progression, sonata, concerto, allegro and 247 more...
-
zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
-
schinders's Words
persiflage, preterition, quidnunc, finick, termagant, otiose, magniloquent, weltschmerz, schadenfreude, piehole, malevolent, susurrus and 132 more...
-
Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
-
Activated Phonemes
This list was generated by first taking a letter from the alphabet, or any of the initial cluster set of phonesthemes compiled by the ingenious Benjamin Shisler) and then sticking one of the suffix...
bing, ding, ging, jing, ling, ming, king, ping, ring, sing, ting, wing and 189 more...
-
Bible names
noah, almighty, cain, abel, father, mother, israel, king, sanctuary, spirit, psalm, blessing and 236 more...
-
the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
-
Christian Music
all words that have sth to do with Christian Music of all times...
melody, hymn, worship, celebrate, psalm, david, choir, praise, christian, music, service, church and 26 more...
-
TN5 Lesson 59
forgot, door, bell, ring, rang, awake, almost, physics, final, flunk, hard, pass and 25 more...
-
courtneysue75's Words
snickerdoodle, crisp, sparkle, serendipity, buttery, dramatic, flit, zip, thwack, monkey, butterscotch, thrilling and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sing.

bilby
Even with insects--
some can sing,
some can't.
- Kobayashi Issa. Mar 4, 2010
gangerh Has nothing to do with mulesing. Apr 23, 2008