Thesaurus results for BALLADS

ballads

noun

plural of ballad

as in songs

a short musical composition for the human voice often with instrumental accompaniment a haunting ballad about lost love and loneliness

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of ballads The nineteenth century saw authors in other countries (Germany, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Norway) attempting to firm up their nationalist claims by ransacking popular ballads, rustic legends, and oral traditions. — Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2026 Robin Hood, the ballads all postdate the Peasants’ Revolt and were wildly popular and continued to resonate and echo down. — Antonia Blyth, Deadline, 4 Sep. 2026 The project featured eight tracks that were mostly recorded in Spanish with the help of Rudy Pérez, a Grammy-winning producer behind some of the biggest ballads in Latin music. — Maya Georgi, Rolling Stone, 4 Sep. 2026 As a result, the concert featured no acoustic sets, no power ballads, no reason for anybody to sit down. — Rodney Ho, AJC.com, 28 Aug. 2026 The soft, soothing sounds of Anne Murray and the over-the-top, emotional ballads of Barbra Streisand had filled our living room and shaped my understanding of female singers. — Lisa Whittington-Hill, Longreads, 27 Aug. 2026 Her mother, Avie Lee Parton, ran the household and was fond of singing traditional Appalachian ballads. — Corky Siemaszko, NBC news, 25 Aug. 2026 Any songwriter should be so lucky — to have one of your hallmark tunes be lovingly swept out from under you and become one of the definitive ballads of pop music. — Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026 The result is a self-reflective collection of empowering pop anthems and wistful ballads that detail not only the dissolution of a relationship but a return to oneself. — Ilana Kaplan, PEOPLE, 21 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for ballads

Noun

A student there named John-Michael Tebelak wrote the book for the show as his master’s thesis, with original songs provided by his friends.

— Victor Garber, Vulture, 17 Sep. 2026
But there was another Olivia Benson on the screen that night … the cat Olivia Benson, whom the pop superstar — who boasts 277 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 to date — named after the beloved character played by Hargitay for 27 seasons and counting.

— Anna Chan, Billboard, 16 Sep. 2026

Definition of songs

Noun

The scholar of religion Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900) noticed that many Vedic hymns praise different deities using the same superlatives and ascribe to them the same mythological feats.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Aug. 2026
Avie Lee filled the family's two-room home with music by singing hymns, folk songs and traditional mountain music.

— Devarrick Turner, USA Today, 25 Aug. 2026

Definition of hymns

Noun

For more than 50 years, with a few breaks in between, Squeeze has been making memorable tunes by marrying infectious pop melodies with sophisticated and literate lyrics, often about the complexity of relationships.

— Craig Rosen, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2026
Sunday Night Football’s first game — and the first teams that Underwood shouted out in her weekly changing lyrics — was between NFC East rivals Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.

— Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of lyrics

Noun

Not with hardcore perreo or the female empowerment anthems that have become her trademark, but with the vulnerability of a broken heart.

— Leila Cobo, Billboard, 28 Aug. 2026
Dolly Parton, the brilliant songwriter and beloved country singer who has died at age 80, wrote one of the great anthems of the American working class.

— John Nichols, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of anthems

Browse Nearby Words

ballad

ballads

ballast

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Ballads.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ballads. Accessed 17 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of ballads

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

watershed

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Popular in Wordplay

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Words from the 'Odyssey'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Popular

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Games & Quizzes