🎶 A high melody 🎤 To sing high part 🗣️ To speak at length

to descant

9.9

To sing a high extra melody above the main tune

verb
/ˈdɛskænt/

Specialized

: cantar un descanto

As she sang, the soloist began to descant, creating a mesmerizing layer above the primary melody.

Examples

The choir will descant beautifully during the Christmas service, adding a lovely embellishment to the main hymn.
He decided to descant while playing the piano, enriching the song with his intricate melody.
Succeeding generations of us, on each of our occasions, have, like you, simply appointed their own tenor, their own alto, and their own timing to descant and fill out gaps built.

Fiction book (1994)

Synonyms

to descant on

vsto descant

Specialized

9.9

To sing a higher melody above the main tune

sings only as an ornamental vocal line and never uses instruments

Phrasal Verbs

to descant on

Specialized

9.9

To sing a higher melody above the main tune

How Ornamental

to embellish

10 6.3

to descant

Specialized

9.9

to improvise

141 4.0

to sing

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

descant infinitive

descanted past

descanted past participle

descanting present participle

descants third person singular

Etymology

Descant as a verb keeps the original idea: it literally means 'to sing apart', so to descant is to sing an ornamental line on top of the main tune, much like a high chant over a song.