song
noun
Simple meaning
A short piece of music with words, or a bird's sound
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sawngIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɔŋ
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
The characteristic sound produced by a bird
“A bird will not learn its song unless it hears it at an early age.”
A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.
A short musical composition with words
“A successful musical must have at least three good songs.”
music
A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.
by extension
Any musical composition.
The act or art of singing.
“With a shout and a song they marched up to the gates.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The characteristic sound produced by a bird
Used this way, song is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“A bird will not learn its song unless it hears it at an early age.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Short / musicalnoun
“A successful musical must have at least three good songs.”
Characteristic / melodiousnoun
“A bird will not learn its song unless it hears it at an early age.”
Artnoun
“With a shout and a song they marched up to the gates.”
More ways to use song
- “A successful musical must have at least three good songs.”noun
- “With a shout and a song they marched up to the gates.”noun
- “A bird will not learn its song unless it hears it at an early age.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The imperial dynasty of China from 960 to 1279.
Theatrical performance combining singing and dancing.
An Old Testament book consisting of a collection of love poems traditionally attributed to Solomon but actually written much later.
An Old Testament book consisting of a collection of love poems traditionally attributed to Solomon but actually written much later.
Small songbird common in North America.
Common Old World thrush noted for its song.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A composer of words or music for popular songs.
A book containing a collection of songs.
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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.