adjective
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of or relating to melody
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of or relating to a part in a piece of music
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tuneful or melodious
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of melodic
1815–25; < Late Latin melōdicus < Greek melōidikós. See melody, -ic
Explanation
Something that's tuneful or pretty to listen to is melodic. If your French teacher has a friendly smile and a melodic voice, you could probably sit and listen to her talk for hours. Anything sweet sounding — a bird's trill, a poet's voice, or the tune you sing in the shower — is melodic. A more technical meaning of the word is "containing melody," the definition a professional musician might use. Melody is a quality of music defined as "tunefulness" or "a satisfying series of notes." Music teachers play melodic patterns for their students to duplicate, and composers sometimes combine melodic phrases to form a symphony. The Greek root of melodic is melos, or "song."
Vocabulary lists containing melodic
Music - Middle School
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Music - High School
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"Superman and Me" and "A Smart Cookie/It's Our Story, Too"
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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.
“Going to Babble On” has a quicker pulse with guitars that chug, and its vibe has the melodic ease of the early-’80s pop style sometimes called yacht rock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
His performance, according to Nils Lofgren, one of the guitarists in the 19-piece E Street Band, was a “brutally honest and melodic statement of Truth.”
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
The song was cut from Armenta’s own 2025 debut, “Portate Bien,” a blend of corridos tumbados with melodic touches of reggaeton and pop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026
He transferred what he called the phasing technique from tape to live music in “Piano Phase,” where one pianist repeats a melodic pattern while another plays the same sequence at a slightly faster tempo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
In most well-written homophony, the parts that are not melody may still have a lot of melodic interest.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
