accompaniment
Americannoun
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something incidental or added for ornament, symmetry, etc.
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Music. a part in a composition designed to serve as background and support for more important parts.
noun
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something that accompanies or is served or used with something else
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something inessential or subsidiary that is added, as for ornament or symmetry
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music a subordinate part for an instrument, voices, or an orchestra
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of accompaniment
Explanation
If your menu tonight consists of grilled pork and savory apples, then the pork is the main item and the apples are the accompaniment, meaning they complement the main dish. The noun accompaniment entered English in the eighteenth century and originally was used in a musical sense to describe a part in a song that supports or acts as background for another more prominent part. Its meaning later expanded to include not only musical assistance but other things that completes or make better the main thing. You’ll often hear it used to describe a food that supports the main item on a plate.
Vocabulary lists containing accompaniment
Fahrenheit 451
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Prisoner B-3087
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Music - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Accompaniment features piano, trumpet, bass and percussion, with Broadway’s Marcy Harriell on lead vocals.
From Washington Post • Sep. 8, 2022
Accompaniment is gradually added and regularly disappears, leaving us to ponder each note and each word in Latin.
From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2016
Musical Accompaniment: In honor of the newest member of Canada’s music Hall of Fame:
From US News • Mar. 18, 2015
Bring Out Your Ringtones, and Other Requests for Accompaniment So Percussion Members of the group, aided by the electronica duo Matmos, performing “Needles,” which included the playing of a cactus, at Zankel Hall.
From New York Times • Mar. 27, 2012
"Accompaniment," "disc," "harmony," such words spoil the effect.
From Letters of Anton Chekhov by Garnett, Constance
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
