ballad
[bal-uh d]
- any light, simple song, especially one of sentimental or romantic character, having two or more stanzas all sung to the same melody.
- a simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing.
- any poem written in similar style.
- the music for a ballad.
- a sentimental or romantic popular song.
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Origin of ballad
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ballad
Contemporary Examples
And it was a radical part of your tool set, throwing it into a ballad, which was also a canonized jazz standard.
There were no longer any chord changes, and it was no longer a ballad.
Toward the end, on the ballad “Someone Else,” she flies over the crowd while straddling a giant hot dog like Slim Pickens.
So begins “Song For Zula,” a beauteous six-minute ballad courtesy of Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Matthew Houck and co.
As soon as she sits down, as if on cue, the Lana Del Rey ballad “Video Games” comes on.
Gina Gershon on Being Donatella Versace, ‘Showgirls,’ and Bill Clinton RumorsMarlow Stern
October 4, 2013
Historical Examples
It was the ballad she had sung at Christmas—in what different mood!
The Bacillus of BeautyHarriet Stark
This ballad was written on the occasion of a Horticultural Festival.
The Works of Whittier, Volume I (of VII)John Greenleaf Whittier
The hint of this ballad is found in Arndt's Murchen, Berlin, 1816.
The Works of Whittier, Volume I (of VII)John Greenleaf Whittier
Apropos, how do you like this thought in a ballad I have just now on the tapis?
The Letters of Robert BurnsRobert Burns
On the present occasion, I was prepared with a ballad of his.
Ranald Bannerman's BoyhoodGeorge MacDonald
ballad
- a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
- a narrative poem in short stanzas of popular origin, originally sung to a repeated tune
- a slow sentimental song, esp a pop song
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Word Origin
C15: from Old French balade, from Old Provençal balada song accompanying a dance, from balar to dance, from Late Latin ballāre; see ball ²
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for ballad
n.
late 15c., from French ballade "dancing song" (13c.), from Old Provençal ballada "(poem for a) dance," from balar "to dance," from Late Latin ballare "to dance" (see ball (n.2)).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
ballad
A simple narrative song, or a narrative poem suitable for singing. The ballad usually has a short stanza, such as:
There are twelve months in all the year,
As I hear many men say,
But the merriest month in all the year
Is the merry month of May.
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ballad
A simple narrative song, or, alternatively, a narrative poem suitable for singing. (See under “Conventions of Written English.”)
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.