n.
- The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.
- Vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody, harmony, or rhythm.
- A musical composition.
- The written or printed score for such a composition.
- Such scores considered as a group: We keep our music in a stack near the piano.
- A musical accompaniment.
- A particular category or kind of music.
- An aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or combination of sounds: the music of the wind in the pines.
[Middle English, from Old French musique, from Latin mūsica, from Greek mousikē (tekhnē), (art) of the Muses, feminine of mousikos, of the Muses, from Mousa, Muse.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
