descants 1 of 2

present tense third-person singular of descant
1
as in lectures
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 chants
to produce musical sounds with the voice the world-famous soprano descanted above the melody line

Synonyms & Similar Words

descants

2 of 2

noun

variants also discants
plural of descant

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for descants
Verb
  • Today’s successful downtowns rely on a mix of ingredients, said Steven Falk, the former city manager of Lafayette, who’s served as an interim city executive in Oakland and Richmond and who lectures at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.
    Martha Ross, Mercury News, 2 June 2026
  • Bad teams are given mechanisms to recover, not lectures about bootstraps.
    Eddie Brown, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 May 2026
Verb
  • The ballroom at the Westin Perimeter North is packed with people sporadically breaking out in Rick Jackson chants from time to time.
    Zachary Bynum, CBS News, 16 June 2026
  • As the crowd chants largely out of sight, heavy automatic gunfire can be heard for 15 uninterrupted seconds.
    Marin Scott, NBC news, 14 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • Paired with bubbly disco grooves and chant-along choruses, the band became gay icons overnight.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 1 July 2026
  • Notorious Knicks villains such as Trae Young, Joel Embiid and CJ McCollum received similarly contentious choruses in recent postseasons.
    Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News, 10 June 2026
Noun
  • The researchers then tested whether the theory could explain the observations.
    Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 5 July 2026
  • Using proxies for past weather and more recent observations, studies confirm that climate is warming.
    Marshall Shepherd, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026
Verb
  • Yet El-Sayed speaks about the controversy with something approaching amusement.
    Nik Popli, Time, 8 July 2026
  • Referee François Letexier speaks with the Egypt team Tuesday.
    Reuters, NBC news, 8 July 2026
Verb
  • Soprano Anna Thompson sings the role of the faithful Micaëla, and Mexican baritone Raúl Morales Velazco is the swaggering toreador Escamillo.
    Randy McMullen, Mercury News, 9 July 2026
  • The future of opera may depend less on who sings the next great aria than on who feels invited to stay after the curtain falls.
    Helmut Paul, Chicago Tribune, 9 July 2026
Noun
  • The machine’s repertoire included answers to 12 riddles, passages from books, and laughing, crying and kissing sounds, as well as arias sung in both male and female voices—all feats that Edison’s phonograph would one day be able to accomplish by recording and playing back the human voice.
    Ron Cowen, Scientific American, 3 June 2026
  • Notable coloratura arias Coloratura arias are found in the works of Mozart, George Frideric Handel, and many other classical composers.
    René Ostberg, Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 May 2026
Noun
  • What Comes Next Huang’s remarks, coupled with Chen’s, underscore a broader shift in thinking no CEO should dismiss.
    Michael Ashley, Forbes.com, 10 July 2026
  • Bill Clinton, who was giving that day’s commencement address, praised El-Sayed in his own remarks.
    Jason Zengerle, New Yorker, 10 July 2026
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.

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Cite this Entry

“Descants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/descants. Accessed 13 Jul. 2026.

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