vocal music
n · noun
Simple meaning
A type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vohkuhlmyoozikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈvoʊkəlmˈjuzɪk
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.
n
A type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece.
noun
Music intended to be performed by one or more singers, usually with instrumental accompaniment
Music that is vocalized (as contrasted with instrumental music)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece.
Used this way, vocal music is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- 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.