noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Music, especially from the 20th century, in which themes are based on a definite order of notes of an equal-tempered scale. uncountable, usually
2. 2
   20th century music that uses a definite order of notes as a thematic basis for a musical composition wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

serial musicserial music

Etymology

From serial + -ism. Calque of the German Reihenmusik.

Related phrases

equal tempered

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