adjective
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of or relating to melody
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of or relating to a part in a piece of music
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tuneful or melodious
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of melodic
1815–25; < Late Latin melōdicus < Greek melōidikós. See melody, -ic
Explanation
Something that's tuneful or pretty to listen to is melodic. If your French teacher has a friendly smile and a melodic voice, you could probably sit and listen to her talk for hours. Anything sweet sounding — a bird's trill, a poet's voice, or the tune you sing in the shower — is melodic. A more technical meaning of the word is "containing melody," the definition a professional musician might use. Melody is a quality of music defined as "tunefulness" or "a satisfying series of notes." Music teachers play melodic patterns for their students to duplicate, and composers sometimes combine melodic phrases to form a symphony. The Greek root of melodic is melos, or "song."
Vocabulary lists containing melodic
Music - Middle School
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Music - High School
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"Superman and Me" and "A Smart Cookie/It's Our Story, Too"
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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.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story of a man aging in reverse becomes a moving and melodic work for the stage in a production now at New York’s Public Theater.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
"I feel like it's not a very melodic time in music," Serge says.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Ryonex has emerged as one of the most notable names in Japan’s new generation of futuristic trap and melodic drill.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026
My singing is far more rhythmic than it is melodic a lot of the time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The sound from its strings, sweet and haunting and melodic, touches my soul.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
