melody

See also: Melody

English

Etymology

From Middle English melodie, melodye, from Old French melodie, from Latin melodia, from Ancient Greek μελῳδίᾱ (melōidíā, “singing, chanting”), from μέλος (mélos, “musical phrase”) + ἀοιδή (aoidḗ, “song”), contracted form ᾠδή (ōidḗ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmel.ə.di/
• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛl.ə.di/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

melody (plural melodies)

1. tune; sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase
   • 1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 1, in The Subtle Minotaur‎^[1]:

     Slowly she turned round and faced towards a neat white bungalow, set some way back from the path behind a low hedge of golden privet. No light showed, but someone there was playing the piano. The strange elusiveness of the soft, insistent melody seemed to draw her forward.

Synonyms

• (sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase): tune

Derived terms

• melodic
• melodious
• melodium

Related terms

• melodrama

Coordinate terms

• harmony
• rhythm
• tone color

Translations

sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase

• Albanian: melodi (sq) f
• Arabic: لَحْن m (laḥn), أُغْنِيَّة f (ʔuḡniyya)

  Egyptian Arabic: لحن m (laḥn)

• Armenian: մեղեդի (hy) (meġedi)
• Azerbaijani: melodiya, təranə
• Bashkir: көй (köy)
• Belarusian: мело́дыя f (mjelódyja)
• Bengali: সুর (śur)
• Bulgarian: мело́дия (bg) f (melódija)
• Burmese: တေးသွား (my) (te:swa:)
• Catalan: melodia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 曲調／曲调 (zh) (qǔdiào), 曲调 (zh) (qǔdiào), 曲子 (zh) (qǔzi), 歌曲 (zh) (gēqǔ), 旋律 (zh) (xuánlǜ)

• Czech: melodie (cs) f
• Danish: melodi (da) c
• Dutch: melodie (nl) f
• Esperanto: melodio
• Estonian: meloodia
• Faroese: lag n
• Finnish: melodia (fi), sävel (fi)
• French: mélodie (fr) f
• Galician: melodía (gl) f
• Georgian: მელოდია (melodia), ჰანგი (ka) (hangi)
• German: Melodie (de) f
• Greek: μελωδία (el) f (melodía)

  Ancient: μελῳδία f (melōidía), μέλος n (mélos)

• Hebrew: מַנגִינָה (he) f (manginá)
• Hindi: राग (hi) m (rāg), लय (hi) f (lay), तराना (hi) (tarānā), धुन (hi) f (dhun)
• Hungarian: dallam (hu), melódia (hu)
• Hunsrik: Mëlotie f
• Icelandic: lag (is) n
• Ido: melodio (io)
• Indonesian: melodi (id)
• Irish: séis f
• Italian: melodia (it) f
• Japanese: 歌曲 (ja) (kakyoku), 調べ (shirabe), 旋律 (ja) (senritsu), メロディー (merodī), 曲 (ja) (きょく, kyoku)
• Kazakh: әуен (äuen), мелодия (melodiä), күй (küi), саз (saz)
• Khmer: បទភ្លេង (bɑt phleing)
• Korean: 멜로디 (ko) (mellodi), 곡 (ko) (gok), 선율 (ko) (seonyul)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji:

  Sorani:

• Kyrgyz: мелодия (melodiya), обон (obon), күү (küü)
• Lao: ທຳນອງ (tham nǭng)
• Latin: melodia
• Latvian: melodija f
• Lithuanian: melodija f
• Macedonian: мелодија f (melodija)
• Malay: melodi
• Maori: rangi
• Mongolian: ая (mn) (aja), аялгуу (mn) (ajalguu)
• Norman: mélodie f
• Norwegian: melodi (no) m
• Pashto: آهنګ m (āháng), اهنګ m (āháng), لحن m (láhǝn)
• Persian: آهنگ (fa) (âhang), ملودی (fa) (melodi), لحن (fa) (lahn)
• Polish: melodia (pl) f
• Portuguese: melodia (pt) f
• Romanian: melodie (ro) f
• Russian: мело́дия (ru) f (melódija), моти́в (ru) m (motív), напе́в (ru) m (napév)
• Scottish Gaelic: fonn m, port m, mànran m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мелодија f, напев m

  Roman: melodija (sh) f, napev m

• Slovak: melódia f
• Slovene: melodija f
• Spanish: melodía (es) f
• Swedish: melodi (sv) c
• Tagalog: melodiya
• Tajik: оҳанг (tg) (ohang), мелодия (melodiya), лаҳн (lahn)
• Tatar: көй (tt) (köy)
• Thai: ทำนอง (th) (tam-nɔɔng)
• Turkish: melodi (tr), ezgi (tr)
• Turkmen: mukam, saz, heň, melodiýa
• Ukrainian: мело́дія (uk) f (melódija)
• Urdu: آہنگ (ur) m (āhang), راگ m (rāg), ترانہ m (tarāna), دھن f (dhun)
• Uyghur: مېلودىيە (mëlodiye), ئاھاڭ (ahang)
• Uzbek: melodiya (uz), ohang (uz), tarona (uz)
• Vietnamese: giai điệu, âm điệu (vi)
• Volapük: melod (vo)
• Yiddish: ניגון m (nign), ניגונדל n (nigndl), ניגן m (nign)

See also

• scale
• tune
• harmony
• music

Anagrams

• moyled