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polyphonic

 
Dictionary: pol·y·phon·ic   (pŏl'ē-fŏn'ĭk) pronunciation
adj.
  1. Music. Of, relating to, or characterized by polyphony.
  2. Linguistics. Having two or more phonetic values.
polyphonically pol'y·phon'i·cal·ly adv.

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The ability to play back some number of musical notes simultaneously. For example, 16-voice polyphony means a total of 16 notes, or waveforms, can be played concurrently.

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Literary Dictionary: polyphonic
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polyphonic [poli‐fon‐ik], literally ‘many‐voiced’, a term found in the writings of the Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, where it is equivalent to dialogic. Thus a polyphonic novel is one in which several different voices or points of view interact on more or less equal terms. The term polyphonic prose has been applied to a kind of free verse printed as if it were prose and showing similarities to the prose poem, as in Amy Lowell's Can Grande's Castle (1918).

noun: polyphony.

WordNet: polyphonic
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The adjective has 3 meanings:

Meaning #1: (linguistics) having two or more phonetic values
  Pertains to noun: polyphone (meaning #1)

Meaning #2: (music) "polyphonic traditions of the baroque"
  Synonym: polyphonous
  Pertains to noun: polyphony (meaning #1)

Meaning #3: (music) having two or more independent but harmonically related melodic parts sounding together
  Synonym: contrapuntal
  Antonym: monophonic (meaning #2)


Translations: Polyphonic
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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - polyfonisk

Nederlands (Dutch)
veelstemmig, polyfoon

Français (French)
adj. - polyphonique

Deutsch (German)
adj. - vielstimmig, polyphon

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - (μουσ.) πολυφωνικός

Italiano (Italian)
polifonico

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - polifônico

Русский (Russian)
полифонический

Español (Spanish)
adj. - polifónico

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - polyfonisk, flerstämmig (mus.)

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
多音的, 对位法的, 有韵律变化的

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 多音的, 對位法的, 有韻律變化的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 다음의, 율격에 변화가 있는

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 多音の, 多声の, 対位法の

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) متعدد الأصوات, متفرع الأصوات, متعدد النغمات‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮רב-קולי, פוליפוני, מייצגת יותר מהגה אחד (אות)‬


 
 

 

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Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
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