lilt
Americannoun
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lilts
plural
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rhythmic swing or cadence.
-
a lilting song or tune.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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(in music) a jaunty rhythm
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a buoyant motion
verb
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(of a melody) to have a lilt
-
to move in a buoyant manner
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of lilt
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English verb lilte, lulte “to sound an alarm; lift up (one's voice)”; perhaps akin to Dutch, Low German lul “pipe,” lullen “to lull,” Norwegian lilla “to sing,” of imitative origin
Explanation
Use the word lilt to describe a swinging kind of tempo in music. You might love old fashioned big band jazz because of its distinctive lilt. Upbeat, rhythmic music of any kind has a lilt, and you can also describe certain ways of speaking as having a lilt. In this case, the lilt is either the rhythm of a person's speech, or her accent — an Irish accent is often called an "Irish lilt." Lilt can be a verb, too, as when you lilt out a song. The earliest meaning of the word was "to lift up one's voice," from the West Midlands lulten, "to sound an alarm."
Vocabulary lists containing lilt
St. Patrick's Day Vocabulary: Words With Irish and Gaelic Roots
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Instead of "Said": Words for Upbeat Banter
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Brown Girl Dreaming
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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 had just begun to lilt toward sleep when my phone buzzed.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
He speaks softly, with a lilt he picked up when his family moved to Australia from Lebanon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
Amy asks her and somehow Wilson delivers that line with a lilt that keeps it from sounding corny.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2026
Australian is also uniquely incompatible with the American lilt, she said.
From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026
“Apparitions?” she asked with a pleasant Dutch lilt.
From "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
With that, “Hacks” goes out on a Seinfeldian high note, cutting to Deborah and Ava happily strolling the Vegas strip on a sun-soaked day as a Barbra Streisand-Judy Garland duet lilts behind them.
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
In “Snow Globe,” her glowing voice lilts over nostalgic guitar riffs: “The last time I was driven away / Looking back at you, baby / Aren’t you better off without me rooted in your town?”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 19, 2023
“Imma make it up as I go,” she lilts, and for all its premeditation, the song swings.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2022
But it’s the dusky shadings and subtle Southern lilts that imbue emotional color and make other people’s songs momentarily her own.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2021
But I, Lyow, choose Lay-making, of loud lilts which linger.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
