Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Rhapsody |
RhapsodyNoun1. An epic poem adapted for recitation. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "rhapsody" was first used: 1542. (references) |
Etymology: Rhapsody \Rhap"so*dy\, noun; plural Rhapsodies. [French expression rhapsodie, from Latin expression rhapsodia, Greek "rapsw,di`a, from "rapsw,do`s rhapsodist; "ra`ptein to sew, stitch together, unite 'w,dh` song. See Ode.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Computing | Rhapsody |
Literature | Rhapsody means songs strung together. The term was originally applied to the books of the Iliad and Odyssey, which at one time were in fragments. Certain bards collected together a number of the fragments, enough to make a connected "ballad," and sang them as our minstrels sang the deeds of famous heroes. Those bards who sang the Iliad wore a red robe, and those who sang the Odyssey a blue one. Psistratos of Athens had all these fragments carefully compiled into their present form (Greek rapto, to sew or string together; ode, a song.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The elevated and inspired aspect of a 'rhapsody' has overtaken its older meaning of a 'medley.' A poetic rhapsody is a rapturous expression of ecstasy, in which prosody may become fragmented.
A Rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, color and tonality. An air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation make it freer in form than a set of variations. Rachmaninov's set of variations on a theme by Niccolò Paganini are so free in structure that the composer called them a ' Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.'
Rhapsodies particularly appealed to Romantic composers. The heroine's mad scene in Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor is rhapsodic in form.
Some familiar examples will give an idea of the character of a rhapsody:
Franz Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsodies
Johannes Brahms, Rhapsodies for solo pianoforte, and the Alto Rhapsody for alto voice, male choir and orchestra.
George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
Ernest Chabrier, España, is a rhapsody on Spanish tunes.
An uninspired rhapsody is a pot-pourri.
Rhapsody is a Power Metal band with Classical influences. Their lyrics are Fantasy-based. The band was formerly known as Thundercross. Their first album was Legendary Tales. The second album, Symphony of Enchanted Lands, propelled them into the spotlight in Power Metal circles. Dawn of Victory followed in 2000. Power of the Dragonflame was released alongside a DVD which contained the band's videos. It ended the Emerald Sword saga.
Rhapsody is also the name of an operating system released by Apple Computer, originating from OPENSTEP, and is the direct precursor to Mac OS X.
Rhapsody (online music service)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Rhapsody."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Absurdity | Farce, galimathias, amphigouri, rhapsody; farrago; (disorder); betise; extravagance, romance; sciamachy. |
Discontinuity | Noun: discontinuity; disjunction; anacoluthon; interruption, break, fracture, flaw, fault, crack, cut; gap; (interval); solution of continuity, caesura; broken thread; parenthesis, episode, rhapsody, patchwork; intermission; alternation; (periodicity); dropping fire. |
Imagination | Conceit, maggot, figment, myth, dream, vision, shadow, chimera; phantasm, phantasy; fantasy, fancy; whim, whimsey, whimsy; vagary, rhapsody, romance, gest, geste, extravaganza; air drawn dagger, bugbear, nightmare. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Rhapsody |
| English words defined with "rhapsody": Rhapsodies, rhapsodise, Rhapsodist, rhapsodize. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "rhapsody": Liver-vein ♦ OpenStep ♦ Yellow Box. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "rhapsody": Rhapsodist. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Lyrics | This whole rhapsody (Lose Yourself; performing artist: EMINEM) I hear a tender rhapsody. (Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me); performing artist: The Temptations) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Pagan Rhapsody (1970) King's Rhapsody (1955) Rhapsody (1954) B-Girl Rhapsody (1950) Rhapsody in Wood (1947) | |
Song Titles | Bohemian Rhapsody (performing artist: Queen) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| "Rhapsody" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 93.10% of the time. "Rhapsody" is used about 29 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) | 93.1% | 27 | 66,962 |
| Noun (proper) | 6.9% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 29 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; 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 "rhapsody"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | rapsodi, lëvdatë entuziaste (panegyric). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | نشوة (ecstasy, jag, rapture, ravishment, swoon, trance, transport), لحن مرتجل, قصيدة ملحمية, وجد (ecstasy, ecstatic, find, get it, hit, locate, manage, passion, puzzle out, trance), زهول, إفتتان (crush, fascination, ravishment, translation). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | рапсодия, възторжено съчинение. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | rapsódie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | قطعه موسیقی ممزوج واحساساتی , اشعارحماسی مخصوص نقالان شعررزمی . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | rapsodia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | rapsodie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Rhapsodie (rapsody). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ραψωδία (canto). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | התלהבות יתר, רפסודיה. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | rapszódia, lelkendezés, elragadtatás (ecstasy, fascination, rapture, ravishing, ravishment, transport), eksztázis (ecstasy, furor, furore, trance). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | kegembiraan (excitement, excuberance, exhilaration, gaiety, gladness, happiness, joy, mirth). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | rapsodia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 狂詩曲 , 狂想曲 , ラフィア椰子 (lab, label, labeling, laboratory, love, love affair, love chair, love child, love game, love hotel, love hunt, love juice, love letter, love play, love romance, love seat, love song, love story, love-in, Rachmaninoff, raffia palm, raft, RAPCON, romantic comedy, rough play, rough sketch, rupture disk, soap opera, the forest). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ラプソディー , きょうしきょく, きょうそうきょく (concerto). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | rapsoid. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | apsodyrhay rapsódia (rapsody). (various references) rapsodie. (various references) рапсодия. (various references) rabhan. (various references) rapsodija, ushićen način izražavanja. (various references) rapsodia. (various references) rapsodi (rhapsode). (various references) บทเพลงอิสระที่เต็มไปด้วยอารมณ์ความรู้สึก. (various references) rapsodi (rhapsodic, rhapsodical), heyecan (affect, agitation, animation, Ardor, ardour, bang, commotion, dither, drama, emotion, enthusiasm, exaltation, excitement, ferment, fermentation, fever, fire, flap, flurry, flush, flutter, furor, furore, glow, kick, pucker, razzle-dazzle, ruffle, sensation, shiver, spice, spring tide, stir, taking, tension, the shivers, thrill, tingle, twitter, vibes, vibration, wallop, warmth, yeast), coşku (ebullition, ecstasy, effervescence, elation, enthusiasm, excitement, exuberance, exuberancy, furor, furore, glow, gush, rave, spring tide, temperament, yeast), aşırı övgü (puff, puffery). (various references) рапсодія, пишномовність (grandiloquence, magniloquence, rant, rhetoric). (various references) sự hào hứng phấn khởi vô bờ, niềm vui cực độ, bài ngâm khoa trương cường điệu niềm hân hoan lớn. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | rhapsoidia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Rhapsody" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: raphsody, Rapsodie, rapsody, rhaphsody, rhapsode, rhapsodia, rhapsodie. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "rhapsody" (pronounced ra"psudē) |
| 4 | -s u d ē | prosody, subsidy. |
| 3 | -u d ē | anybody, comedy, custody, malady, melody, nobody, parody, perfidy, raggedy, remedy, tragedy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-h-o-p-r-s-y" | |
-1 letter: hydrops. | |
-2 letters: dropsy, hoards, hydras, hydros, parody, payors, pharos, sharpy. | |
-3 letters: apods, dashy, dopas, dorps, dorsa, drays, drops, hards, hardy, harps, harpy, hoard, hoars, hoary, horas, horsy, hoyas, hydra, hydro, hypos, opahs, pards, pardy, payor, praos, prays, proas, prods, prosy, raspy, roads, sapor, sarod, shady, shard, sharp, soapy, sophy, spado, spray, yards, yodhs. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-h-o-p-r-s-y" | |
+1 letter: dysphoria. | |
+2 letters: dysphorias, hydrospace. | |
+3 letters: discography, handyperson, hydrophanes, hydroplanes, hydrospaces, psychodrama. | |
+4 letters: handypersons, hydropathies, hydrophobias, parathyroids, paratyphoids, psychodramas, shadowgraphy, spheroidally. | |
+5 letters: chlamydospore, dermatophytes, hydrocephalus, hydrographers, hydrographies, hypochondrias, rhapsodically. | |
| 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. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)52 68 61 70 73 6F 64 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
|
| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
|
| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
|
| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
|
Morse Code (1836) (references).-. .... .- .--. ... --- -.. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
|
| Amazon.com BOOKS: Search for: "rhapsody" |
