Word.ws English Dictionary

song

UK/sɒŋ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/sɔŋ/

song noun: a musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.

Noun

song (countable and uncountable, plural songs)

  1. A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.
    • Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.
    • The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX....
  2. (broadly, colloquial) Any musical composition.
  3. Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
    • This subject for heroic song.1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
    • The bard that first adorned our native tongue / Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song.1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  4. The act or art of singing.
    • How often the enthusiast has dwelt upon the birds bursting into song, the buds bursting into flower, all nature bursting into life!—as though a state of things in which everything around us is bursting is at all pleasant.1884, Spencer Leigh Hughes, “The Weather. A Short Study on a Great Subject.”, in Golden Hours: A Monthly Magazine for Family and General Reading, volume XVII, London: Lile and Fawcett, […], page 28...
    • Or take one that is less of an explanation and more of a song , The Spider . I knew all along what I wanted to say about a spider . I wanted to say all the good things I could . For spiders are the one order of creation that I thoroughly dislike.[…]1942, Robert Peter Tristram Coffin, The Substance that is Poetry (Patten Foundation series), Macmillan, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 71
  5. A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.
    • I love hearing the song of canary birds.
    • That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets.1833, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Canterbury Pilgrims
  6. The distinctive sound that a male bird utters to attract a mate or to protect his territory; contrasts with call; also, similar vocalisations made by female birds.
  7. A low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song.
    • He bought that car for a song.
    • his [a common soldier's] pay is a song.1810, Benjamin Silliman, A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland
  8. (obsolete) An object of derision; a laughing stock.
    • And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 30:9

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Song

Song

  1. (historical) A former dynasty in China, reigning from the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to the beginning of the Yuan.
    • Up until the Song dynasty (960 to 1279 A.D.), it was the case that, like in the West, each person would get their own meal.2017 August 29, Sabine Peschel (kbm), “What the Chinese think of German food”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2017, Lifestyle
    • A 1,000-year-old bowl from China's Song Dynasty sold at auction for $37.7 million on Tuesday, breaking the record for Chinese porcelain, auction house Sotheby's said.
      The small piece -- which dates from 960-1127 -- broke the previous record of $36.05 million set in 2014 for a Ming Dynasty wine cup...2017 October 3, “Bowl sells for Chinese porcelain record $37.7 million: Sotheby's”, in France 24, archived from the original on 03 Oct 2017, Live news
  2. (historical) A former empire in China, occupying the eastern half of modern China.
  3. (historical) The era of Chinese history during which the dynasty reigned.
  4. A surname from Chinese.
    Synonyms:
    Songjiang, Song Jiang
  5. A river in China; any of various minor rivers in China.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Song

Song

  1. A river in Papua New Guinea.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Song

Song

  1. A local government area of Adamawa State, Nigeria.

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Song

Song (plural Songs)

  1. A surname from Khmer.

Proper noun (5) capitalized: Song

Song

  1. A district of Phrae Province, Thailand.

Proper noun (6) capitalized: Song

Song (plural Songs)

  1. A surname from Korean.

song meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

song in Hindi

music with words
गाना gānā, गीत gīt, गान gān, गाथ gāth, तराना tarānā, गाथा gāthā

song in Tamil

music with words
பாட்டு pāṭṭu, பாடல் pāṭal

song in Marathi

music with words
गाणे gāṇe

song in Urdu

music with words
گانا gānā, گِیت gīt, گان gān, تَرَانَہ tarāna, آہَن٘گ āhaṅg, سُرُود surūd
More languagesFewer languages
song in Bengali
গান gan
song in Telugu
చవక cavaka, పాట pāṭa
song in Malayalam
പാട്ട് pāṭṭŭ, ഗാനം gānaṁ
song in Kannada
ಗೀತೆ gīte
song in Punjabi
ਗਾਣਾ gāṇā, گاݨا gāṇā
song in Gujarati
ગીત gīt, ગાણું gāṇũ, સંગીત saṅgīt
song in Odia
ଗୀତ gita
song in Sanskrit
गीत gīta, गाथ gātha
song in Sinhala
ගීතය gītaya
song in Assamese
গান gan
song in Nepali
गीत gīt
song in Pashto
سرود sorúd, سندره sandᶕra, ترانه tarāná, تڼ taṇ
song in Tagalog
kanta, awit
song in Arabic
أُغْنِيَّة ʔuḡniyya, أُغْنِيَة ʔuḡniya, اغنية oḡneya, غنوة ḡenwa
song in Malay
lagu, gita
song in Indonesian
lagu, tembang
song in Persian
آهَنْگ āhang, تَرَانَه tarāna, سُرُود surūd, تَرانِه tarâne
song in Thai
เพลง pleeng
song in Vietnamese
bài hát, ca, ca khúc, ca hát
song in Myanmar
သီချင်း sihkyang:, တေး te:
Sindhi
گيِتُ gītu
Dhivehi
ލަވަ lava

Examples of song in a sentence

  • In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266:
  • The robin alone by his soft morning song broke the silence and the solitude which reigned in the forest.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 85:
  • Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years.1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The...

All 40 example sentences with song

Synonyms of song

Forms of song

Noun
pluralsongs
Proper noun
alternative formSung
alternative formSoong
pluralSongs

Plural of song: songs

Origin of song

From Middle English song, sang, from Old English sang, from Proto-West Germanic *sangu, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.

Borrowed from Mandarin 宋 (Sòng).

Derived from Khmer សុង (song).

Words formed from song

Phrases with song

32 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with song

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about song

What does song mean?
Song means a musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.
What is song in Hindi?
Song in Hindi is गाना (gānā), गीत (gīt), गान (gān). See Song meaning in Hindi.
How do you use song in a sentence?
In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.
What part of speech is song?
Song can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce song?
Song is pronounced /sɒŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of song?
The plural of song is songs.

Words near song in the dictionary

  1. sones
  2. Soneses
  3. SONET
  4. sonfucker
  5. sonfuckers
  6. song
  7. song and dance
  8. song and supper room
  9. song and supper rooms
  10. song book
  11. song books

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: song (page history and authors); Song (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-song.ogg.

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