What does "music" mean?
Music: (a) Melody; a rhythmical and otherwise agreeable succession of tones. (b) Harmony; an accordant combination of simultaneous tones.
Additional senses
- 2.The written and printed notation of a musical composition; the score.
- 3.Love of music; capacity of enjoying music. The man that hath ni music in himself Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. Shak.
- 4.(Zoöl.) A more or less musical sound made by many of the lower animals. See Stridulation. Magic music, a game in which a person is guided in finding a hidden article, or in doing a specific art required, by music which is made more loud or rapid as he approaches success, and slower as he recedes. Tennyson. -- Music box. See Musical box, under Musical. -- Music hall, a place for public musical entertainments. -- Music loft, a gallery for musicians, as in a dancing room or a church. -- Music of the spheres, the harmony supposed to be produced by the accordant movement of the celestial spheres. -- Music paper, paper ruled with the musical staff, for the use of composers and copyists. -- Music pen, a pen for ruling at one time the five lines of the musical staff. -- Music shell (Zoöl.), a handsomely colored marine gastropod shell (Voluta musica) found in the East Indies; -- so called because the color markings often resemble printed music. Sometimes applied to other shells similarly marked. -- To face the music, to meet any disagreeable necessity without flinching. [Colloq. or Slang]
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00