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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.

Back and forth, a choir onstage chanted plainsong, answered by another more effusive choir behind the audience.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 20, 2023

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

If their prayer is like plainsong, chanted in unison, their work is like harmony, a bright medley of voices.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

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.