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Showing results for plainsong. Search instead for Plain+song.
Synonyms

plainsong

American  
[pleyn-sawng, -song] / ˈpleɪnˌsɔŋ, -ˌsɒŋ /
Or plain song

noun

  1. the unisonous vocal music used in the Christian church from the earliest times.

  2. modal liturgical music; Gregorian chant.

  3. a cantus firmus or theme chosen for contrapuntal development.

  4. any simple and unadorned melody or air.

plainsong British  
/ ˈpleɪnˌsɒŋ /

noun

  1. Also called: plainchant.  the style of unison unaccompanied vocal music used in the medieval Church, esp in Gregorian chant

"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 plainsong

1505–15; translation of Medieval Latin cantus plānus

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.

Church music, plainsong music, large choirs — all of that stuff is extremely beautiful, and I wanted to try and get some of that in this record.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 5, 2024

And at the appointed hour, just as their guidebook had promised, the transfiguring music of plainsong rose from the crypt below them, a few wide steps down from the main body of the church.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 10, 2018

I think of him in the lineage of bardic recitation and plainsong.

From Slate • Aug. 12, 2016

The worship continues with the proper liturgy at 7:30 p.m., a holy day that includes plainsong and music by John IV of Portugal and William Byrd.

From Washington Post • Mar. 18, 2016

Indeed, plainsong developed gradually and separately all over Christian Europe according to local tastes and traditions.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

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.