Word.ws English Dictionary

alap

alap noun: the opening, improvised section of a Classical raga performance, before the formal recitation.

Noun

alap (plural alaps)

  1. The opening, improvised section of a Classical raga performance, before the formal recitation.
    • The alaap is the part of our classical music that I like best. It is an inward voyage, an odyssey into the unknown.1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 176

Forms of alap

pluralalaps
alternative formaalap
alternative formalaap
alternative formalapa

Origin of alap

Borrowed from Sanskrit आलापा (ālāpā).

Questions about alap

What does alap mean?
Alap means the opening, improvised section of a Classical raga performance, before the formal recitation.
What part of speech is alap?
Alap is a noun.
What is the plural of alap?
The plural of alap is alaps.

Words near alap in the dictionary

  1. alanyls
  2. Alaotra grebe
  3. Alaotra grebes
  4. Alaouite
  5. Alaouites
  6. alap
  7. alapa
  8. Alapang
  9. alapas
  10. alaph
  11. alaphosphin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “alap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.