discography
Americannoun
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a selective or complete list of phonograph recordings, typically of one composer, performer, or conductor.
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the analysis, history, or classification of phonograph recordings.
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the methods of analyzing or classifying phonograph recordings.
noun
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a classified reference list of gramophone records
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another word for discology
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of discography
From the French word discographie, dating back to 1930–35. See disc, -o-, -graphy
Explanation
A discography is a list of all the musical recordings of a particular artist, musical group, composer, or conductor. If you look up your favorite band online, you’ll likely be able to find a discography of all their music. A discography is usually more than just a list of songs: It may include album names and all the singles on the albums, along with the release dates and record labels. It also likely includes the format of the original recordings, all the musicians and producers who worked on them, and how songs performed on the music charts. Many discographies detail a particular artist's or group's works, but some catalog all the recordings of a particular music label, producer, or genre of music.
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.
See Examples For:
I could throw on my Discover Weekly or a Daily Mix and find enough songs to fuel my creativity and bookmark a few to later explore the artist’s discography.
From Slate ● Apr. 12, 2026
Running from 10 to 12 July, the rapper is set to perform tracks from across his discography when he takes to the stage at Finsbury Park.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026
They found it during recording sessions for the album “Band on the Run,” the melody-drunk highlight of McCartney’s 1970s discography.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
It also featured some of the worst, most forgettable music of her career, songs that could neatly fit into the generic discography of radio-friendly pop artists and be slotted into the void of Spotify’s algorithm.
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2026
I burned through the entire They Might Be Giants discography in under two weeks.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
Two longtime veterans with vast discographies are back with new records early in the year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025
The French conductor’s luminous elegance irradiates Menuhin’s intense humanity; there’s nothing else quite like it in the extensive discographies of either artist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2016
Pope Francis might be particularly cool, but he's not breaking new ground in terms of papal discographies.
From The Verge ● Sep. 25, 2015
As a new generation of music fans comes of age unimpeded by moral or technological roadblocks to this form of collecting, even discographies will become too minuscule to play with.
From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2011
And they're doing this at the same time as they're downloading whole discographies via BitTorrent and sending leaked MP3s on Gmail.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 1, 2010
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.
