as in accent
the attractive quality of speech or music that rises and falls in a pleasing pattern
There was a charming lilt to her voice. a tune with a lilt
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Recent Examples of lilt
Pete Hammond, Deadline, 19 Mar. 2025
This region is vast and diverse, with as many variations on our signature lilt as there are preparations of barbecue.
—Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 14 Jan. 2025
Literary Hub, 10 July 2025
There is something so soothing and encouraging about the old-school campy lilt to her voice.
—Raquel Willis, Time, 19 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for lilt
Noun
Platt has assembled key creatives from his own Oscar-winning La La Land including songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who have provided some lively and lilting new tunes.
—Pete Hammond, Deadline, 19 Mar. 2025
This region is vast and diverse, with as many variations on our signature lilt as there are preparations of barbecue.
—Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 14 Jan. 2025
Verb
The news people are announcing on repeat a mantra suffused with an English lilt in their mouths, that the fires haven’t gorged themselves on the rainforests like this in over half a century.
—Literary Hub, 10 July 2025
There is something so soothing and encouraging about the old-school campy lilt to her voice.
—Raquel Willis, Time, 19 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for lilt
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lilt
Noun
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Multiple users focused on the age and tone of the waitress, who is not shown on camera but her Southern accent is clearly audible.—
Soo Kim,
MSNBC Newsweek,
3 Oct. 2025
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Both models feature Alpine’s signature blue accents to tie them directly to the team’s livery.—
Carol Besler,
Robb Report,
3 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Mark croons and strums campfire acoustic.—
Jonathan Terrell,
Rolling Stone,
23 Sep. 2025
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Director Scott Cooper gave Jeff Bridges a platform to country croon his way to an Academy Award for Crazy Heart, which is enough to ignite the Oscar hopes for White, who while quite good in 2023’s The Iron Claw nevertheless doesn’t possess Bridges’ decades of goodwill.—
Vulture Staff,
Vulture,
23 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Companies such as OpenAI, ElevenLabs, and Hume AI, for example, are building text-to-voice models that can whisper, laugh, and affect a broad range of emotional cadences.—
Webb Wright,
The Atlantic,
1 Oct. 2025
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Fans will always be notified more than 48 hours before their purchasing window opens, but the cadence will vary, FIFA told The Athletic; there will not be new time slots, nor new batches of emails, every single day.—
Henry Bushnell,
New York Times,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The track begins with Winter’s distinct vocals warbling and wobbling over a tender percussion groove.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
8 July 2025
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The famous John Williams fanfare that blasted Star Wars onto our screens had appreciably less impact than even a standard screen would now offer, let alone IMAX and Dolby Cinema premium offerings while at some parts of the film, the sound warbled a little, before returning to normal.—
Benny Har-Even,
Forbes.com,
13 June 2025
Noun
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Taylor put the onus on himself to set up the rhythm that the team needs to support Browning and eventually create the explosives that are lacking.—
Paul Dehner Jr,
New York Times,
6 Oct. 2025
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The beat of the agent’s drum, the rhythm of the red-hot afternoon in rural Pennsylvania.—
Grace Byron,
Vulture,
6 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Is there a way to keep your knives sharp longer? A.—
BestReviews,
Mercury News,
9 Sep. 2025
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Why would sharp-as-nails med school grads opt toward a presumably dead-end occupational route?—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
4 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Mike McDaniel’s Dolphins offense was humming early Sunday; the Dolphins took a 17-0 first half lead and Darren Waller caught all five passes thrown to him for 78 yards and a touchdown.—
Barry Jackson,
Miami Herald,
5 Oct. 2025
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The set is humming with energy, but Morman stays locked in, switching seamlessly from host to producer, moving with the rhythm of someone who’s been in this position a thousand times before.—
Okla Jones,
Essence,
30 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The blast furnace of volcanoes has fallen silent, replaced by birdsong trilling from the branches and echoing through a garden of exotic stone.—
Roger Naylor,
AZCentral.com,
29 Aug. 2025
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Expect to marvel at saddles blanketed in blueberries and multi-hued wildflowers, marmots trilling their warnings, ibex perched on rocky spines, and neon critters that wiggle and hop underfoot.—
Wendy Altschuler,
Forbes.com,
16 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Lilt.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lilt. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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