symphony

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *sem-der.?

Proto-Hellenic *ksún

Ancient Greek σύν (sún)

Ancient Greek σῠν- (sŭn-)

Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der.

Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ)

Ancient Greek -ος (-os)

Ancient Greek σῠ́μφωνος (sŭ́mphōnos)

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂

Proto-Hellenic *-íā

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā)

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Ancient Greek σῠν- (sŭn-)

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Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ)

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Ancient Greek -ίᾱ (-íā)

Ancient Greek -φωνίᾱ (-phōníā)

Ancient Greek σῠμφωνῐ́ᾱ (sŭmphōnĭ́ā)der.

Latin symphōniader.

Old French simphonieder.

Middle English symphonye

English symphony

From Middle English symphonye, from Old French simphonie, from Latin symphonia, from Ancient Greek συμφωνία (sumphōnía). By surface analysis, sym- +‎ -phony. Doublet of sinfonia, symphonia, tsampouna, and zampogna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪm.fə.ni/, [ˈsɪɱ.fə.nɪi̯]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: sym‧pho‧ny

Noun

symphony (countable and uncountable, plural symphonies)

1. An extended piece of music of sophisticated structure, usually for orchestra.

   classical symphony

   compose a symphony

   full symphony orchestra

   The orchestra performed Beethoven’s Fifth symphony.

2. (music) An instrumental introduction or termination to a vocal composition.
3. Harmony in music or colour, or a harmonious combination of elements.

   She described the city at night as a symphony of lights and sounds.

4. (US, informal) A symphony orchestra.

Derived terms

• city symphony
• minisymphony
• pocket symphony
• presymphony
• symphonette
• symphonic
• symphonism
• symphonist
• symphonygoer

Descendants

• → Burmese: ဆင်ဖိုနီ (hcanghpuini)
• → Japanese: シンフォニー (shinfonī)
• → Khmer: ស៊ីមហ្វូនី (siimfounii)
• → Malay: simfoni
• → Punjabi: ਸਿੰਫਨੀ (simphani)
• → Thai: ซิมโฟนี (sim-foo-nîi)
• → Welsh: symffoni

Translations

piece of orchestral music

• Albanian: simfoni (sq) f
• Arabic: سِيمْفُونِيَّة f (sīmfūniyya), سِيمْفُونِي m (sīmfūnī)
• Armenian: սիմֆոնիա (hy) (simfonia), համանուագ (hamanuag) (Western Armenian)
• Azerbaijani: simfoniya
• Belarusian: сімфо́нія f (simfónija)
• Bengali: সিম্ফনি (bn) (śimphoni)
• Bulgarian: симфо́ния (bg) f (simfónija)
• Burmese: ဆင်ဖိုနီ (hcanghpuini)
• Catalan: simfonia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 交響曲 / 交响曲 (gaau¹ hoeng² kuk¹)

  Hokkien: 交響曲 / 交响曲 (zh-min-nan) (kau-hiáng-khek)

  Mandarin: 交響曲 / 交响曲 (zh) (jiāoxiǎngqǔ)

• Czech: symfonie (cs) f
• Danish: symfoni c
• Dutch: symfonie (nl) f
• Esperanto: simfonio
• Estonian: sümfoonia
• Farefare: simfonia
• Finnish: sinfonia (fi)
• French: symphonie (fr) f
• Friulian: sinfonie f
• Georgian: სიმფონია (simponia)
• German: Sinfonie (de) f, Symphonie (de) f
• Greek: συμφωνία (el) f (symfonía)
• Hebrew: סִימפוֹנִיָה (he) f (simfónya)
• Hindi: सिंफ़नी f (sĩfanī), सिम्फ़नी f (simfanī), स्वर की समता m (svar kī samtā)
• Hungarian: szimfónia (hu)
• Icelandic: sinfónía f
• Irish: siansa m
• Italian: sinfonia (it) f
• Japanese: 交響曲 (ja) (こうきょうきょく, kōkyōkyoku)
• Kazakh: симфония (simfoniä)
• Khmer: ស៊ីមហ្វូនី (siimfounii)
• Korean: 교향곡(交響曲) (ko) (gyohyanggok), 심포니 (ko) (simponi)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: senfonî (ku)

• Kyrgyz: симфония (ky) (simfoniya)
• Ladin: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: simfonija f, simfōnija f (obsolete spelling)
• Lithuanian: simfonija f
• Macedonian: симфонија f (simfonija)
• Malay: simfoni
• Māori: puoro tuatini
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: симфони (mn) (simfoni)

  Mongolian script: ᠰᠢᠮᠹᠣᠨᠢ (simfoni)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: symfoni m

  Nynorsk: symfoni m

• Pashto: سمفوني f (samfoni), سيمفوني f (simfoni)
• Persian: سمفونی (fa) (samfoni)
• Piedmontese: sinfonìa f
• Polish: symfonia (pl) f
• Portuguese: sinfonia (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਸਿੰਫਨੀ (simphnī)
• Romagnol: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: simfonie (ro) f
• Russian: симфо́ния (ru) f (simfónija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сѝмфо̄нија f

  Latin: sìmfōnija (sh) f

• Slovak: symfónia f
• Slovene: simfonija f
• Spanish: sinfonía (es) f
• Swedish: symfoni (sv) c
• Tajik: симфония (simfoniya)
• Tatar: симфония (simfoniyä)
• Thai: ซิมโฟนี (sim-foo-nîi)
• Turkish: senfoni (tr)
• Turkmen: simfoniýa
• Ukrainian: симфо́нія (uk) f (symfónija)
• Urdu: ہَم نَوائی (ham-navāī), سِمْفَنی f (simfanī)
• Uyghur: سىمفونىيە (simfoniye)
• Uzbek: simfoniya (uz)
• Vietnamese: giao hưởng (vi) (交響)
• Volapük: sümfon, kobolestukot, (children) cilasümfon
• Welsh: symffoni f
• Yiddish: סימפֿאָניע f (simfonye)

Anagrams

• hyponyms, physnomy