songwriter
Americannoun
-
songwriters
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of songwriter
Explanation
A musician who composes tunes and writes lyrics is a songwriter. Many famous musical performers, from Elvis Presley to Rihanna, have relied on songwriters to write their biggest hits. While composers write music and lyricists focus on just the words, songwriters do both. If you have a decent singing voice, play the guitar, and love coming up with your own lyrics and melodies, you should think about being a singer-songwriter. Or team up with another musician and write songs together, the way John Lennon and Paul McCartney did, sharing credit as songwriters for many of the Beatles' most famous songs.
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:
Detritus accumulates like a wake behind a songwriter because songwriters are loath to continue to try to promote a piece of material that has any disappointment attached to it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
The Australian-American singer and songwriter Jamie O’Neal digresses from the program just a bit—delivering Reba McEntire’s “Tammy Wynette Kind of Pain.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
How was Dolly a model for a woman in country to be a gifted songwriter and entertainer, with both strong values and wide appeal?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
A third disc, “The Stranger in the House,” finds Costello imagining another potential career for himself as a professional songwriter.
From Salon ● Oct. 14, 2026
I’m thinking it can’t hurt to share them, even if there’s no chance I’ll ever get to be a songwriter.
From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes
This rhythmic signature traveled from West Africa, the region that supplied the slave trade, to Cuba, and then was taken up by American songwriters from Jelly Roll Morton and W.C.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Last year, the prize was won by Newcastle singer-songwriter Sam Fender, who donated his £25,000 winnings to grassroots music venues, helping to support up-and-coming songwriters around the UK.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
To complete the thought about songwriters recording their own introspective records — a tradition that stretches back through Luke Laird and Jon Brion and Jimmy Webb — Sloan asks if I’ve seen HBO’s “Silicon Valley.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
In July, a Munich court ruled against Suno in a case brought by GEMA, which collects royalties for German songwriters and publishers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
Talent contests and megalomaniac record producers have always paired ingenue wannabes with experienced songwriters, for instance, cashing in quickly on success before the public's appetite for novelty fades.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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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.
