broken chord
Americannoun
noun
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.
Then it grows small again, a lonely keyboard wandering a broken chord as Bryant’s voiceover admits that his body can only play for so long.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2025
“Giuseppe,” the mother said again, in a soft, broken chord of muted anguish.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
![]()
Such tongues ring falser than a broken chord Whose jar distunes the music.
From Locrine: a tragedy by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
Would all be changed and chill, and the old music of their past be silence, or at best the jangle of a broken chord?
From When Ghost Meets Ghost by De Morgan, William Frend
As he listened, he lost his place; the music ended with a broken chord, and the musician sat silent in the dark.
From Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Alcott, Louisa May
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.