What does "sol-fa" mean?

a method of sight singing music that uses the syllables do (originally ut), re, mi, fa, sol (or so), la, and si (or ti) to represent the pitches of the scale, most commonly the major scale. The fixed-do system uses do for C, and the movable-do system uses do for whatever key the melody uses (thus B is do if the piece is in the key of B).

What is a synonym for "sol-fa"?

Common synonyms include: bel canto, bravura, carol, chant, chirp, chorus.

Sol-fa

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
a method of sight singing music that uses the syllables do (originally ut), re, mi, fa, sol (or so), la, and si (or ti) to represent the pitches of the scale, most commonly the major scale. The fixed-do system uses do for C, and the movable-do system uses do for whatever key the melody uses (thus B is do if the piece is in the key of B). uncountable

Verb

1
To sing a sol-fa

Synonyms

All synonyms

bel canto bravura carol chant chirp chorus

Etymology

From sol and fa, two of the sung syllables.

Related phrases

sol-faer sol-faism sol-faist

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