serenade
verb · noun
Simple meaning
A love song that is sung directly to one's love interest.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehruhnaydSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
sɛɹəˈneɪd
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.
verb
Sing and play for somebody
“She was serenaded by her admirers.”
transitive
To sing or play a serenade for (someone).
noun
A love song that is sung directly to one's love interest, especially one performed below the window of a loved one in the evening.
music
A musical composition in several movements; has no fixed form
music
An instrumental composition in several movements.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Sing and play for somebody
Used this way, serenade is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“She was serenaded by her admirers.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use serenade
- “She was serenaded by her admirers.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.