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View synonyms for madrigal

madrigal

[ mad-ri-guhl ]

noun

  1. a secular part song without instrumental accompaniment, usually for four to six voices, making abundant use of contrapuntal imitation, popular especially in the 16th and 17th centuries.
  2. a lyric poem suitable for being set to music, usually short and often of amatory character, especially fashionable in the 16th century and later, in Italy, France, England, etc.
  3. any part song.


madrigal

/ ˌmædrɪˈɡælɪən; ˈmædrɪɡəl; -ˈɡeɪ- /

noun

  1. music a type of 16th- or 17th-century part song for unaccompanied voices with an amatory or pastoral text Compare glee
  2. a 14th-century Italian song, related to a pastoral stanzaic verse form
“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


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Derived Forms

  • madrigalian, adjective
  • ˈmadrigalˌesque, adjective
  • ˈmadrigalist, noun
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Other Words From

  • madri·gal·esque adjective
  • mad·ri·gal·i·an [mad-r, uh, -, gal, -ee-, uh, n, -, gal, -y, uh, n, -, gey, -lee-, uh, n], adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of madrigal1

1580–90; < Italian madrigale < Medieval Latin mātricāle something simple, noun use of neuter of Late Latin mātricālis literally, of the womb. See matrix, -al 1
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Word History and Origins

Origin of madrigal1

C16: from Italian, from Medieval Latin mātricāle primitive, apparently from Latin mātrīcālis of the womb, from matrīx womb
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Example Sentences

The new book majors on mortality, and not just with Mrs. Madrigal.

The Days of Anna Madrigal really is the last Tales novel, Maupin insists.

Cast: David Walton, Minnie Driver, Benjamin Stockham, Al Madrigal, Leslie Bibb.

She sat down at the spinet and played a little madrigal by Orlando Gibbons that was associated with her earliest childhood.

Perhaps she would soon be down—should he write the madrigal he had promised her?

Every man tried his hand at verses, and learned to sing a madrigal, and tinkle the accompaniment with his own fingers.

These were days when the proa went shouting across the empty southern seas to madrigal and choric song.

She seemed to belong rightly to a madrigal—to require viewing through rhyme and harmony.

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Madridmadrigalist