ballade

[ buh-lahd, ba-; French ba-lad ]

/ bəˈlɑd, bæ-; French baˈlad /

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noun, plural bal·lades

[buh-lahdz, ba-; French ba-lad]. /bəˈlɑdz, bæ-; French baˈlad/.

a poem consisting commonly of three stanzas having an identical rhyme scheme, followed by an envoy, and having the same last line for each of the stanzas and the envoy.

Music. a composition in free style and romantic mood, often for solo piano or for orchestra.

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Origin of ballade

1485–95; <Middle French, variant of baladeballad

Words nearby ballade

balkline, balky, ball, Balla, ballad, ballade, balladeer, balladist, balladize, ballad metre, balladmonger

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use ballade in a sentence

Apart from her laughter that Gainsbourg surreptitiously recorded while she was being tickled, Birkin appears only on “Ballade of Melody Nelson.”
Jane Birkin is back with a new album, but her presence is everlasting|Jeff Weiss|March 19, 2021|Washington Post
The opening of this first Ballade is sad, sinister and mysterious, like the old Scotch story.
Piano Mastery|Harriette Brower
The second ballade, in D flat major, is more melodious and attractive, but less strong.
Descriptive Analyses of Piano Works|Edward Baxter Perry
The belt over the hips of the cotehardie holds the purse, and often a ballade or a rondel.
English Costume|Dion Clayton Calthrop

He was condemned to die—he wrote his marvellous Ballade of the Gibbet while lying under sentence of death—but escaped.
Ballades and Rondeaus, Chants Royal, Sestinas, Villanelles, etc,|Various
The laws of the ballade apply to the chant royal, with some added details of its own.
Ballades and Rondeaus, Chants Royal, Sestinas, Villanelles, etc,|Various

British Dictionary definitions for ballade

ballade

/ (bæˈlɑːd, French balad) /

noun

prosody a verse form consisting of three stanzas and an envoy, all ending with the same line. The first three stanzas commonly have eight or ten lines each and the same rhyme scheme

music an instrumental composition, esp for piano, based on or intended to evoke a narrative

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012