Antimusical

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Opposing or countering music.

    "This does become monstrously antimusical in one scene: when Tchaikovsky’s music, softly depicting the sleeping palace (my favorite passage of this composer’s entire oeuvre, with its beautifully muffled oboe melody suggesting how beauty ripens in sleep like a chrysalis), is turned into an epic battle for the poor passive Prince, conducted between the wicked Carabosse, with her ghoulish minions, and the Lilac Fairy, with her elves."

  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to antimusic.

Example

More examples

"This does become monstrously antimusical in one scene: when Tchaikovsky’s music, softly depicting the sleeping palace (my favorite passage of this composer’s entire oeuvre, with its beautifully muffled oboe melody suggesting how beauty ripens in sleep like a chrysalis), is turned into an epic battle for the poor passive Prince, conducted between the wicked Carabosse, with her ghoulish minions, and the Lilac Fairy, with her elves."

Etymology

From anti- + musical.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.