harmony

See also: Harmony

English

Etymology

First attested in 1602. From Middle English armonye, from Old French harmonie/armonie, from Latin harmonia, from Ancient Greek ἁρμονία (harmonía, joint, union, agreement, concord of sounds).

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈhɑɹməni/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈhɑːməni/
  • (file)
  • Homophone: hominy (god-guard merger and weak vowel merger)

Noun

harmony (countable and uncountable, plural harmonies)

  1. Agreement or accord.
    • America's social harmony has depended at least to some degree on economic growth. It is easier to get along when everyone, more or less, is getting ahead. Evan Thomas, Why It’s Time to Worry, Newsweek 2010-12-04
  2. A pleasing combination of elements, or arrangement of sounds.
  3. (music) The academic study of chords.
  4. (music) Two or more notes played simultaneously to produce a chord.
  5. (music) The relationship between two distinct musical pitches (musical pitches being frequencies of vibration which produce audible sound) played simultaneously.
  6. A literary work which brings together or arranges systematically parallel passages of historians respecting the same events, and shows their agreement or consistency.
    a harmony of the Gospels

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

  • harmony in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • harmony in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
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