musical

comparative more musical · superlative most musical · alternative obsolete musicall

1. Of, belonging or relating to music, or to its performance or notation.

   musical proportion

   1 more example

   musical instruments

2. Pleasing to the ear; sounding agreeably; having the qualities of music; melodious; harmonious.

   She had a musical voice.

3. Fond of music; discriminating with regard to music; gifted or skilled in music.

   having a musical ear

   1 more example

   The child is musical.

4. Pertaining to a class of games in which players move while music plays, but have to take a fixed position when it stops; by extension, any situation where people repeatedly change positions.

   Musical beds is the faculty sport around here.

   1962, Edward Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: A Play, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 34

   4 more examples

   Musical seats upon an airplane is not a game I recommend.

   2004, Mike Bright, A Dream Realized: A Collection of Poems by Cowboy Mike Bright, Xulon Press, →ISBN, page 341

   “Sounds like y'all are playing musical houses. How did you convince your mama to move to Austin?”

   2006, Evelyn Palfrey, The Price of Passion, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 441

   Parties were splitting, forming, merging, and dissolving in such rapid succession that the game of musical chairs seemed to describe what was going on better than any known theory of political science.

   2011, Leonard James Schoppa, The Evolution of Japan's Party System: Politics and Policy in an Era of Institutional Change, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 14

   Among my small circle of college friends, and even more so among the volunteers here, couples are so often changing places, people playing musical lovers.

   2014, Tyler McMahon, Kilometer 99: A Novel, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, page 138

plural musicals · alternative obsolete musicall

1. A stage performance, show or film that involves singing, dancing and musical numbers performed by the cast as well as acting.

   It is unthinkable for a straight play to enjoy a life span like those of the blockbuster musicals or to earn such astronomical grosses.

   2004, Steven Adler, On Broadway: Art and Commerce on the Great White Way, SIU Press, →ISBN, page 221

2. probably archaic or obsoleteA meeting or a party for a musical entertainment; a musicale.