melody
mel·o·dy/ˈmɛl.ə.di/noun
melody is spelled M-E-L-O-D-Y: 6 letters and 3 syllables (mel·o·dy). It appears 6.5 times per million words in written English, the 9,463rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Melody, the name). As a noun, melody means “A sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of melody is melodies.
How many letters and syllables are in melody?
| Letters | 6: M-E-L-O-D-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: mel·o·dy |
| In writing | 6.5 times per million words; the 9,463rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is melody?
Melody appears 6.5 times per million words in written English, the 9,463rd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Melody, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce melody?
- /ˈmɛl.ə.di/
Melody has 3 syllables, split mel·o·dy in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-melody.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of melody
- melodies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does melody mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase.
Alyssa likes to sing melodies while playing the drums.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Melody in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense sequence of notes that makes up a musical phrase:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does melody come from?
From Middle English melodie, melodye, from Old French melodie, from Latin melodia, from Ancient Greek μελῳδίᾱ (melōidíā, “singing, chanting”), from μέλος (mélos, “musical phrase”) + ἀοιδή (aoidḗ, “song”), contracted form ᾠδή (ōidḗ).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).