Dictionary

monody en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (UK) audio
• /ˈmɒnədi/ (UK)
• /ˈmɑnədi/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Latin monodia, from Ancient Greek μονῳδία (monōidía).

Meanings

1. An ode, as in Greek drama, for a single voice, often specifically a mournful song or dirge.
2. Any poem mourning the death of someone; an elegy.
3. A monotonous or mournful noise.
   • Stroke by stroke, the great familiar monody of that incomparable curfew rose and fell in the stillness. 1911, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson:
4. A composition having a single melodic line.
   • All directions in life were blocked to him. He could not think, he could not sleep, his heart thudded to a deadening monody of fear. Fear that is itself the penalty of all things feared. 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 203:

Forms

Deriveds

monodist · monodic · monodical