song
/sɒŋ/ noun, proper noun
Also a form of sung
Forms songs Sung Soong
- noun (music) A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing. “Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.”
- noun (colloquial, by extension) Any musical composition.
- noun Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
- noun The act or art of singing.
- noun A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal. “I love hearing the song of canary birds.”
- noun (ornithology) The distinctive sound that a male bird utters to attract a mate or to protect his territory; contrasts with call; also, similar vocalisations made by female birds.
- noun A low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song. “He bought that car for a song.”
- noun (obsolete) An object of derision; a laughing stock.
- proper noun (historical) A former dynasty in China, reigning from the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to the beginning of the Yuan.
- proper noun (historical) A former empire in China, occupying the eastern half of modern China.
- proper noun (historical) The era of Chinese history during which the dynasty reigned.
- proper noun A surname from Chinese.
- proper noun A river in China; any of various minor rivers in China.
- proper noun A river in Papua New Guinea.
- proper noun A local government area of Adamawa State, Nigeria.
- proper noun A surname from Khmer.
- proper noun A district of Phrae Province, Thailand.
- proper noun A surname from Korean.
Synonyms
Songjiang Song Jiang vocal strain birdcall call birdsong Sung Sung dynasty Song dynasty
Etymology
From Middle English song, sang, from Old English sang, from Proto-West Germanic *sangu, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.
Borrowed from Mandarin 宋 (Sòng).
Derived from Khmer សុង (song).
Derived from Thai สอง (sɔ̌ɔng).
Webster’s 1913
- noun That which is sung or uttered with musical modulations of the voice, whether of a human being or of a bird, insect, etc. "That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets." Hawthorne.
- noun A lyrical poem adapted to vocal music; a ballad.
Etymology [AS. song, sang, fr. singan to sing; akin to D. zang, G. sang, Icel. söngr, Goeth. sagws. See Sing.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “song”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details