melos
noun
the succession of musical tones constituting a melody.
melos
1 American
[mel-os, -ohs, mee-los, -lohs]
/ ˈmɛl ɒs, -oʊs, ˈmi lɒs, -loʊs /
noun
Melos
2
American
[mee-los, -lohs, mel-os, -ohs, mee-laws]
/ ˈmi lɒs, -loʊs, ˈmɛl ɒs, -oʊs, ˈmi lɔs /
Also
Milos.
noun
Melos
British
/ ˈmiːlɒs /
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of melos
First recorded in 1730–40, melos is from the Greek word mélos song, tune
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:
“After all,” she notes, “melodrama comes from melos, which means ‘music,’ ‘honey’; a drama queen is, nonetheless, a queen.”
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 31, 2019
Charles A. Taylor, 78, blood-&-thunder dramatist of the '90s; in Glendale, Calif. Five of his melos were running at once on Broadway in 1892.
From Time Magazine Archive
It characterizes the Christian chant or canticle, as a higher thing than a Greek ode, melos, or hymnos, or than a Latin carmen.
From On the Old Road, Vol. 2 (of 2) A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature by Ruskin, John
Even in its heyday, though the parts were ever so independent of one another, the mass of tone forms a great melody, or melos, moving on a firm harmonic foundation in the lowest part.
From Purcell by Runciman, John F.
This word melos is also applied to the peculiar style of vocal solo found in Wagner's music dramas.
From Music Notation and Terminology by Gehrkens, Karl Wilson
Back in 416 B.C., the refusal to submit to Athens, the superpower of antiquity, ended badly for the islanders of Melos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Athens insisted that Melos join its alliance, noting threateningly that the powerful do what they want and the weak must accept it, according to the historian Thucydides in his famous "Melian Dialogue."
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2015
Months later, the Melos lifted the first construction crane in the city's post-housing bubble era, betting they could find buyers for condos in a new 17-story tower.
From Reuters ● Mar. 10, 2013
The Melians predicted that the Athenians’ cruel treatment of Melos could provoke other neutral states into opposing Athens.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 12, 2012
The noblest and most perfect type of Greek beauty has, indeed, come to us from Melos, but not in real life.
From Rambles and Studies in Greece by Mahaffy, J. P.
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.
