close harmony

American

[klohs] / kloʊs /

noun

Music.

harmony in which the voices, excluding the bass, occur within an octave or, sometimes, within the interval of a tenth.

close harmony British

/ kləʊs /

noun

a type of singing in which all the parts except the bass lie close together and are confined to the compass of a tenth

"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

Etymology

Origin of close harmony

First recorded in 1875–80

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.

The mix of working in close harmony, but entirely individually, chimed with McMurtry.

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2024

They sing in close harmony through the song, and Rexha adapts her voice to share Parton’s feathery vibrato, but Parton is upfront in the bridge.

From New York Times • Apr. 28, 2023

The sisters, who began singing in church in Ohio during the 1930s, had an uncanny sense of timing and close harmony matched by a perky, ever-smiling stage manner.

From Washington Post • Jan. 2, 2021

We all know the answer, but when it’s posed this beautifully, in such impeccable close harmony, the obviousness of the question can be forgiven.

From The Guardian • Dec. 5, 2019

As we left the Temperant tent, the quartet was singing, in close harmony: .

From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023