melody

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).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmel.ə.di/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛl.ə.di/

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melody (plural melodies)

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

     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.

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

• melodic
• melodious
• melodium

• melodrama

• scale
• tune
• harmony
• music

• moyled