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plainchant

American  
[pleyn-chant, -chahnt] / ˈpleɪnˌtʃænt, -ˌtʃɑnt /

noun

  1. plainsong.


plainchant British  
/ ˈpleɪnˌtʃɑːnt /

noun

  1. another name for plainsong

"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

Etymology

Origin of plainchant

1720–30; plain 1 + chant, modeled on French plain-chant

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.

Each section—crucifixion, burial and resurrection—began with plainchant and continued with more elaborate settings of those and other sacred texts on the subjects.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 4, 2025

At the gates of hell, the stones instruct Orpheus not to sing there “unless you sing in a dead language” — so Hopkins and Orlinski duly start intoning Latin, in a parody of medieval plainchant.

From New York Times • Nov. 24, 2021

The vocal settings are plain as well, with qualities again of Glass and Satie, along with hints of Robert Ashley, Broadway, elemental pop song and plainchant.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 15, 2021

“Partita for 8 Voices” is a pattern book of vocal styles: its movements are stitched together from plainchant, percussive breathing, Early American hymnody, and half a dozen other techniques.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 4, 2019

What singers of plainchant had in front of them in the centuries before about ad 800 was the text, in Latin, of what they were singing.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall