tuneful
Americanadjective
-
full of melody; melodious.
tuneful compositions.
- Synonyms:
- sweet, dulcet, harmonious, musical
- Antonyms:
- discordant
-
producing musical sounds or melody.
adjective
-
having a pleasant or catchy tune; melodious
-
producing a melody or music
a tuneful blackbird
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tuneful
Explanation
Music that's pleasant to listen to is tuneful. A tuneful lullaby will put your little sister right to sleep. If you whistle melodically, in a way that sounds lovely to people who hear it, your whistle is tuneful. You might describe a new album from your favorite band as being full of tuneful songs, or the birds in your yard as making tuneful chirps and tweets. Tuneful comes from tune, which evolved out of tone and its Proto-Indo-European root, ten-, "to stretch."
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.
The ex-Beatle’s new album is a collection of characteristically fresh and tuneful songwriting, mixing reflections on his Liverpool days with more contemporary-minded material.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
Wicked and Emilia Pérez are the first tuneful twosome to be up for the top prize since Funny Girl and Oliver! in 1969.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2025
In season three, for instance, Sam helps guide Brad, her best friend Joel’s boyfriend, through a tuneful declaration of his devotion.
From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2024
As he should: The band’s self-titled debut, which came out last month, is a tuneful blast of fuzz-bomb pop — glammy, folky, a little psychedelic — with great riffs and a loping, late-Beatles-era groove.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2024
It’s exciting and powerful, but you couldn’t call it tuneful, or a laugh a minute.
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.
