Melodicise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To give a piece of music or speech a more tuneful, lyrical quality by shaping its pitches into pleasing melodies
2. To render something more musical in sound by arranging its notes or tones into an agreeable tune
3. To transform a passage or voice into a smoother, more song-like form through the shaping of its melodic line

Etymology: "Melodicise" is the British spelling of "melodicize," a verb meaning to make something more melodic or tuneful. It is built from "melodic," which comes from the Greek "melōdikos," from "melos" (song, limb, tune) and "ōdē" (ode, song), so the word is essentially a song-song compound. "Melodic" entered English in the 1600s, and "-ise" is the English verb-forming suffix (from Greek "-izein" through Latin and French), attached here to turn the adjective into a verb. The verb itself is a late formation. English has plenty of verbs built this way from adjectives, such as "modernise" or "familiarise," and "melodicise" follows the same pattern, so it appears in dictionaries only as a derivative of the adjective rather than as a word with a separate history of its own.

Synonyms: melodicize, melodize, harmonize

Antonyms: disharmonize