accompaniment
Americannoun
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accompaniments
plural
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something incidental or added for ornament, symmetry, etc.
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Music. a part in a composition designed to serve as background and support for more important parts.
noun
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something that accompanies or is served or used with something else
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something inessential or subsidiary that is added, as for ornament or symmetry
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music a subordinate part for an instrument, voices, or an orchestra
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of accompaniment
Explanation
If your menu tonight consists of grilled pork and savory apples, then the pork is the main item and the apples are the accompaniment, meaning they complement the main dish. The noun accompaniment entered English in the eighteenth century and originally was used in a musical sense to describe a part in a song that supports or acts as background for another more prominent part. Its meaning later expanded to include not only musical assistance but other things that completes or make better the main thing. You’ll often hear it used to describe a food that supports the main item on a plate.
Vocabulary lists containing accompaniment
Fahrenheit 451
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Prisoner B-3087
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Music - Introductory
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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:
Rather, it was accompaniment: feeding, sheltering, driving, watching, and warning so no one had to move in isolation.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
An onstage sandbox is more than just another visual accompaniment to her talk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
Traditional music and drumming also provided an accompaniment to the activities.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2026
They’ve also allowed people to organize things like court accompaniment, protection for religious services and food drives.
From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2026
Cal has Ms. Albright’s laptop, which has piano recordings of the accompaniment to all the songs.
From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli
Elegantly played laments and dances were woven between the text sections, and sometimes skillfully repurposed as their background accompaniments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2025
There are many sides, such as crab cakes, soup, and more, but I’d rather enjoy the crab with the included accompaniments of coleslaw, garlic rolls and butter.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2025
The music, in this case, arises not from a conventional score, but rather from the diegetic accompaniments of soup bubbling in a pot, butter sizzling in a pan and utensils scraping against crockery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2023
Dr. Caillon, in addition to developing R.A.V.E., has contributed to the Google-led projects SingSong, which generates accompaniments for recorded vocal melodies, and MusicLM, another text-to-music generator.
From New York Times ● Jun. 10, 2023
Soft piano or violin concertos with orchestral accompaniments work well.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
