four-part harmony
noun · n
Simple meaning
Harmony in which each chord has four notes that create four melodic lines.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fawrpahrtahrmuhneeIPA pronunciation (US)
fɔɹpɑɹtɑɹməni
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Harmony in which each chord has four notes that create four melodic lines
n
Music written for four voices, or for some other musical medium—four musical instruments or a single keyboard instrument, for example—for which the various musical parts can give a different note for each chord of the music.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Harmony in which each chord has four notes that create four melodic lines
Used this way, four-part harmony is a specialist word with a mildly favourable edge. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.