descant 1 of 2

1
as in to speak
to give a formal often extended talk on a subject an English professor who loves to descant on his beloved Shakespeare

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in to chant
to produce musical sounds with the voice the world-famous soprano descanted above the melody line

Synonyms & Similar Words

descant

2 of 2

noun

variants also discant

Examples 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 descant
Noun
Bart, too idiosyncratic merely to copy the idiosyncrasies of the movie’s Christopher Lloyd, instead adds a descant of commentary atop them, sometimes seeming to extemporize a different show entirely. Jesse Green, New York Times, 3 Aug. 2023 Then comes a longer descant of mixed-up work, including bad versions of pop tunes and ambitious attempts at pop epics. Adam Gopni, The New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2021 For seven decades, Katz has been providing a visual descant to the work of the New York School of poets, many of whom were his friends. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 29 Oct. 2022 Birds provided an intermittent descant to the insect buzz and the drone of a distant tractor. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2022 The Hynde storyline, which includes her messing around with songs on an acoustic guitar, runs as a kind of descant against the personal and professional noise of the Pistols. Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2022 This is a dark and defensive descant to a more substantial and necessary conversation about whiteness in America. Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 3 July 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for descant
Verb
  • Days after Donna wrapped her scenes, King and Hynes spoke with PEOPLE on set and gushed over the Kelce matriarch's warm presence.
    Daniela Avila, People.com, 30 Nov. 2024
  • Writing creates a safe distance, giving them the space to process and articulate emotions without the immediate vulnerability of speaking them aloud.
    Mark Travers, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2024
Verb
  • The White House on Monday joined city, state and Jewish community leaders in Ohio condemning a small group who marched through Columbus on Saturday chanting racial slurs and white nationalist slogans while carrying Nazi flags.
    Patrick Smith, NBC News, 18 Nov. 2024
  • More:Israeli soccer fans attacked in incident linked to antisemitism in Amsterdam After Maccabi fans burned a Palestinian flag and chanted racist slogans, violence overtook the city's downtown.
    Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY, 13 Nov. 2024
Noun
  • Orange County Retired Educators Association: The program will include holiday musical presentations by the Apopka High School chorus and Edgewater High School chorus.
    Joe Rassel, Orlando Sentinel, 27 Nov. 2024
  • Near the end of the last chorus, the instruments go respectfully silent as the narrator makes his confession a capella.
    Tom Zoellner, SPIN, 27 Nov. 2024
Noun
  • The South Korean outpost is in an observation tower on the border between the two nations.
    Maureen O'Hare, CNN, 30 Nov. 2024
  • Only 75% of annual observations of the giant planet by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope between 1994 and 2022 reveal them.
    Jamie Carter, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2024
Verb
  • They even get lectured by parents for breaking rules — but that doesn't stop them from finding a spaceship buried in the nearby woods.
    Christian Holub, EW.com, 1 Nov. 2024
  • The whole thing reads as if it is being delivered by someone looking down over their glasses with their hands on their hips like a parent lecturing a child.
    Roger Valdez, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024
Verb
  • The Atlanta Women's Chorus sings holiday songs from movies like Home Alone, Love Actually, and The Muppet Christmas Carol.
    Thomas Wheatley, Axios, 5 Dec. 2024
  • Advertisement Oppenheimer and Schmidt both wanted actors who could sing, not professional singers — a crucial distinction.
    Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 5 Dec. 2024
Noun
  • Repetition with fidelity led, with the aid of print, to longer organized forms such as the motet, a vocal music composition, and the conductus, a Latin song with a rhythmic structure.
    Lynn Whidden, Scientific American, 26 July 2024
  • According to Francisco, the composers represented no less than 30 print collections of solo songs, cantatas, motets, polyphonic works, settings for psalms and masses, a magnificat, a vespers service, a dozen sonatas, and scores for nine operas and other staged works.
    Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2024
Noun
  • Zero campaign spending The success of Georgescu — who has praised Romanian fascist leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin — has triggered nightly protests throughout Romania by those who oppose his past remarks and view him as a threat to democracy.
    Stephen McGrath, Los Angeles Times, 2 Dec. 2024
  • In the op-ed, Mouton wrote that several Democrats in various posts have reached out to him to thank him for his remarks that stirred controversy in his home state.
    Filip Timotija, The Hill, 30 Nov. 2024

Thesaurus Entries Near descant

Cite this Entry

“Descant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/descant. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

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