Descant

Definitions: Descant

Descant

Noun

1. A decorative musical accompaniment (often improvised) added above a basic melody.

Verb

1. Sing in descant.

2. Sing by changing register; sing by yodeling; "The Austrians were yodeling in the mountains".

3. Talk at great length about something of one's interest.

Date "descant" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1385. (references)

Synonyms: Descant

Synonyms: discant (n), warble (v), yodel (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Diffuseness	Verb: be diffuse; Adjective: run out on, descant, expatiate, enlarge, dilate, amplify, expand, inflate; launch out, branch out; rant.
Dissertation	Verb: expound upon a subject, dissert upon a subject, descant upon a subject, write upon a subject, touch upon a subject; treat a subject, treat a subject thoroughly, treat of a subject, take up a subject, ventilate a subject, discuss a subject, deal with a subject, go into a subject, go into a subject at length, canvass a subject, handle a subject, do justice to a subject.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Descant

English words defined with "descant": descant on, Descanted, Descanting ♦ Figurate, Figurate counterpoint ♦ song thrush. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Descant" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

Manx (descant).

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	The hills are made with the euphonious symphonies of descant (Moulin Rouge!; writing credit: Baz Luhrmann; Craig Pearce)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Cricksongs and Descant (reference) Descant for Gossips (Large Print) [LARGE PRINT] (reference) Paper guitar : 27 writers celebrate 25 years of Descant magazine (reference) Play Time Recorder Course Stage 1 : An Introduction to the Descant Recorder (reference) Pricksongs and Descant (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Descant" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 62.50% of the time. "Descant" is used about 8 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	62.5%	5	157,705
Adjective (general or positive)	37.5%	3	202,518
Total	100.00%	8	N/A

Expressions using "descant": counterpoint or descant ♦ descant on ♦ descant recorder ♦ descant upon ♦ Figurate descant ♦ Figurative descant. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "descant"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		soprano (soprano), melodi (air, cantus, lay, melody, tune), komentoj (comment, gloss, interpret), koment (comment, commentary, notation), këngë (canto, cantus, chanson, lay, song), këndoj (cantillate, Carol, crow, sing, troll), arsyetoj (dissert, dissertate, expostulate, justify, motivate, ratiocinate, rationalize, reason, recognize, reflect, speculate), arsyetim (argumentation, intellection, logic, rationality, rationalization, reasoning, recollection, Rede, speculation, understanding). (various references)

Arabic		‏غنى لحنا, ‏الموسيقى, ‏اللحن المساير. (various references)

Bulgarian		коментарии, коментирам (comment, remark), възпявам (berhyme, berime, chant, hymn, sing, tune), опявам (din, din into, ding, nag, perform a funeral service), мелодия (air, melody, strains, tune), първи глас, пея (chant, jug, perform, pipe, sing, vocalize). (various references)

Czech		diskant (treble), soprán (soprano, treble). (various references)

Finnish		diskantti (treble). (various references)

French		déchante, chanter une partie du déchant. (various references)

German		diskant (soprano, treble). (various references)

Greek		συζητώ (argue, canvass, chat, debate, discuss, dispute, reason, talk over), σχολιάζω (annotate, comment, comment пз, comment on, gloss, make a remark), μελωδία άσματοσ, άδω (lilt, sang, sing, vocalize). (various references)

Hebrew		ל�"עיר באריכות, � עימ�" (melody, tone, tune). (various references)

Hungarian		dal (air, charm, lay, melody, song), énekel (chant, sang, sing, sung, to carol, to chant, to chirp, to chorus, to sing, to warble). (various references)

Italian		dissertare, disquisizione (disquisition), discorrere (converse, discourse, speak, talk), discanto, soprano (soprano, treble), melodia (melody, tune), commento (annotation, comment, commentary, note, remark). (various references)

Manx		descant. (various references)

Pig Latin		escantday

Portuguese		dissertar (discourteous, expatriate), discorrer (discourse, expatiate), descante, descantar, poema melódico (melon), melodia (aria, Diapason, melody, music, tune), estender-se (unroll, widen), canto (angle, brink, brow, cantation, canthi, canthus, canto, cantus, chant, corner, edge, melody, nook, song), canção (chanson, lay, song), ária (aria, melody, tune). (various references)

Romanian		soprano (soprano), melodie (chime, melody, note, song, tune), cântec (air, cantus, Carol, ditty, epithalamium, glee, lay, lied, lieder, melody, note, song, tune). (various references)

Russian		рассуждать о чем-л., подробно обсуждать (thrash out), песня (canto, chanson, song), длинное рассуждение, дискант (soprano, treble). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		deskant. (various references)

Spanish		disertar (discourse, hold forth, make a speech), discante, comentario (annotation, comment, commentary, note, observation, postscript, remark). (various references)

Swedish		diskant (treble), utbreda sig över, sopran (soprano, treble), flerstämmig komposition, ackompanjemang (accompaniment, backing, vamp). (various references)

Thai		พู�"ยื�"ยาวเกี่ยวกับ (descant on), ร้องเสียงสูงขึ้น (descant on). (various references)

Turkish		hararetli okuma, hararetle okumak, en yüksek sesten şarkı söylemek, en yüksek ses, şarkı söylemek (chant, have a sing, sing, sing a song). (various references)

Ukranian		співати (cantillate, carp, chant, crow, sing, vocalize, warble), коментар (annotation, comment, commentary), наспівувати (cantillate, thrum), наспів (canto, chant, croon), міркувати (brood over, cogitate, contemplate, deliberate, dwell, excogitate, meditate, peruse, pore, ratiocinate, reason, speculate), міркування (case, cogitation, consideration, contemplation, rationale, reflection, reflexion, speculation, think, thinking), мелодія (melody, note), пісня (canto, chanson, chant, glee, song, warble). (various references)

Vietnamese		b� i bình luận d� i. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	dis-. (various references)
Medieval Latin	700-1500	discantus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "descant": descanted, descanting, descants. (additional references)
	Words containing "descant": tradescantia, tradescantias. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Descant" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: deccan, decsent, deoscent, Desano, Desanti, descand, descante, desecant, desicant, detchant, Dezhan, diccan, disant, discent, doescent, Dschang, ediswan, Lescaut. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: decants, scanted.
	Words within the letters "a-c-d-e-n-s-t"
	-1 letter: ascend, ascent, cadent, cadets, canted, centas, dances, decant, enacts, secant, stance, staned.
	-2 letters: acned, acnes, acted, anted, antes, cades, cadet, caned, canes, canst, cants, cased, caste, cates, cents, cesta, daces, dance, dates, deans, dents, enact, etnas, nates, neats, saned, sated, scant, scena, scend, scent, sedan, stade, stand, stane, stead, taces, tends, tsade.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-d-e-n-s-t"
	+1 letter: descants, distance, endocast, pandects, scandent, snatched, stanched, tacnodes.
	+2 letters: accidents, actinides, andesitic, anecdotes, antecedes, ascendant, ascendent, asyndetic, candidest, catenoids, chastened, coattends, decadents, decanters, descanted, desiccant, dicentras, discanted, distanced, distances, endocasts, indicates, instanced, outdances, sonicated, staunched, syndicate, tendances, transcend, transduce, underacts, unscathed, unstacked.
	+3 letters: abducentes, adolescent, advections, ancestored, anecdotist, ascendants, ascendents, candescent, candidates, candlenuts, condensate, contrasted, decathlons, declarants, descanting, descendant, desiccants, desistance, diaconates, dieticians, discarnate, discrepant, disenchant, educations, fascinated, fecundates, headcounts, mendicants, redactions, reductants, sanctified, sanctioned, syncopated, syndicated, syndicates, transacted, transcends, transduced, transducer, transduces, transected, undercoats, vindicates, wainscoted.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.