mellifluous
adjective
Simple meaning
Sweet, smooth and musical.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mehlihflwuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɛlɪflwəs
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.
adjective
figurative
Sweet, smooth and musical; pleasant to hear (generally used of a person's voice, tone or writing style).
Flowing like honey.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Sweet, smooth and musical; pleasant to hear (generally used of a person's voice, tone or writing style).
Used this way, mellifluous is a reasonably familiar 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
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
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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.