song

plural songs

1. countableuncountableentertainmentA musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.

   Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.

   3 more examples

   The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

   1568, 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. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290

   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

   He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights,[…], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

2. broadlycolloquialcountableuncountableAny musical composition.
3. countableuncountablePoetical 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; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   1 more example

   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. countableuncountableThe 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, column 1

   1 more example

   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. countableuncountableA melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.

   I love hearing the song of canary birds.

   2 more examples

   That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets.

   1833, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Canterbury Pilgrims

   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

6. countableuncountablebiologyThe 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. countableuncountableA low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song.

   He bought that car for a song.

   2 more examples

   his [a common soldier's] pay is a song.

   1810, Benjamin Silliman, A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland

   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. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;[…].

   1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016

8. countableobsoleteuncountableAn 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

alternative Sung · alternative Soong

1. historicalA 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

   2 more examples

   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 which was sold to a Shanghai tycoon.

   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

   The brightest supernova in your Milky Way galaxy to be visible from Earth was seen and recorded by the Chinese during the Song Dynasty on the 4th of July in A.D. 1054.

   2025, Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Stars, Near & Far”, in Just Visiting This Planet, Revised and Updated for the Twenty-First Century (Science / Astronomy), Blackstone Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 90

2. historicalA former empire in China, occupying the eastern half of modern China.
3. historicalThe 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.

1. A river in Papua New Guinea.

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

plural Songs

1. A surname from Khmer.

1. A district of Phrae Province, Thailand.

plural Songs

1. A surname from Korean.