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.

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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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.

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)

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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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