Polyphony

//pəˈlɪfəni// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    music arranged in parts for several voices or instruments wordnet
  3. 3
    The quality of a text of being able to be read in more than one way. countable, uncountable

    "the polyphony of a biblical passage"

Synonyms

All synonyms
counterpointconcerted musiccounterpointharmonypolyphonic music

Example

More examples

"Bach's music is rich in polyphony."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πολυφωνία (poluphōnía); equivalent to poly- + -phony.

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