serenade

Syllables: se·re·nade/ˌsɛɹəˈneɪd/

serenade noun: a love song that is sung directly to one's love interest, especially one performed below the window of a loved one in the evening.

Image: В стиле Клавдий Петрович Степанов, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

serenade (plural serenades)

A love song that is sung directly to one's love interest, especially one performed below the window of a loved one in the evening.
- From me to thee glad serenades, / Dances for thee I propose saluting thee, adornments and feastings for thee, / And the sights of the open landscape and the high-spread sky are fitting, / And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems
- A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade / Laying everybody low with a love song that he made1980, Dire Straits, “Romeo and Juliet”, in Making Movies
An instrumental composition in several movements.
- “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” is a well-known serenade written by Mozart.

Verb

serenade (third-person singular simple present serenades, present participle serenading, simple past and past participle serenaded)

(transitive) To sing or play a serenade for (someone).
- The Southampton striker, who also struck a post late on, was being serenaded by the Wembley crowd before the end and should probably brace himself for some Lambert-mania over the coming days but, amid the eulogies, it should not overlook the deficiencies that were evident in another stodgy England...2013 August 14, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian
(broadly) To woo someone.

serenade meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Kannada and Tagalog

serenade in Tamil

காதலிக்கான அப்படிப்பட்ட இன்னிசை, இன்னிசையால் காதலியை மகிழ்வி, இன்னிசை நிகழ்த்து

serenade in Bengali

প্রণয়সংগীত, সান্ধ্যকালীন সংগীত

serenade in Kannada

ಪ್ರೇಮಗೀತ, ಪ್ರೇಮಕವನ, ಪ್ರೇಮಗಾನ, ಕಾದಲರ ಹಾಡು

serenade in Tagalog

love song: harana

More languagesFewer languages

serenade in Thai: เซเรเนด
Sindhi: سيرينيڊ serenade, سيرينيڊ ڳائڻ serenade gā'iṇu

Forms of serenade

Noun
plural	serenades
Verb
third-person singular present	serenades
present participle	serenading
past participle	serenaded
past	serenaded

Plural of serenade: serenades

Origin of serenade

Borrowed from French sérénade, from Italian serenata, from the past participle of serenare, from Latin serenare, from serenus (“calm”), of uncertain origin (see there).

Words formed from serenade

Words that rhyme with serenade

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about serenade

What does serenade mean?: Serenade means a love song that is sung directly to one's love interest, especially one performed below the window of a loved one in the evening.
What is serenade in Tamil?: Serenade in Tamil is காதலிக்கான அப்படிப்பட்ட இன்னிசை, இன்னிசையால் காதலியை மகிழ்வி, இன்னிசை நிகழ்த்து. See Serenade meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is serenade?: Serenade can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce serenade?: Serenade is pronounced /ˌsɛɹəˈneɪd/.
What is the plural of serenade?: The plural of serenade is serenades.

Words near serenade in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: serenade (page history and authors); serenade (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); serenade (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); serenade (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-serenade.wav.

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