MELODY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Melody

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/mˈɛlədi/ Listen

noun

Melody n. (pl. melodies)

A sweet or agreeable succession of sounds. "Lulled with sound of sweetest melody."

(Mus.) A rhythmical succession of single tones, ranging for the most part within a given key, and so related together as to form a musical whole, having the unity of what is technically called a musical thought, at once pleasing to the ear and characteristic in expression. Note: Melody consists in a succession of single tones; harmony is a consonance or agreement of tones, also a succession of consonant musical combinations or chords.

The air or tune of a musical piece.

Synonyms: See Harmony.

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Etymology of 'Melody'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Melody" Quotes from Famous Books

... brilliancy. Little Mag fell to the floor and awoke in the darkened room. As she was in the act of falling the faint sound of distant music, mingled with the noise of far away rushing waters, seemed to fall upon her ears, increasing in strength and melody as she ...

— Young Lion of the Woods - A Story of Early Colonial Days • Thomas Barlow Smith

... the middle is a fountain distilling limpid water, and all around there is a profusion of macetas, in which flowering plants and aromatic shrubs are growing, and at each corner there is an orange tree, and the perfume of the azahar may be distinguished; you hear the melody of birds from a small aviary beneath the piazza which surrounds the court, which is surrounded by a toldo or linen awning, for it is the commencement of May, and the glorious sun of Andalusia is burning with a splendour too intense for its rays to be borne with impunity. It is a fairy scene ...

— George Borrow - The Man and His Books • Edward Thomas

... at once rose the clear sound of the girls' voices, in the sweet, sad melody of a funeral hymn,—one of those which Elsie had marked, as if prophetically, ...

— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... open upon it. Some words of writing at the top expressed that it was the composer's original copy, presented by him, Christopher Julian, to the author of the song. Seeing that he noticed the sheet somewhat lengthily, Ethelberta remarked that it had been an offering made to her a long time ago—a melody written to ...

— The Hand of Ethelberta • Thomas Hardy

... spun through a golden haze of melody and rhythm. Into three hours she crammed all the joy, all the thrill, that she had dreamed of through her lonely girlhood. At half after eleven she was ...

— Lydia of the Pines • Honore Willsie Morrow

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