different between exclaim vs sing

English

Alternative forms

• exclame [16th-17th c.]

Etymology

From Middle French exclamer, from Latin excl?m?, excl?m?re (“call out”), from ex- + cl?m? (“to call”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?skle?m/, /?k?skle?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Verb

exclaim (third-person singular simple present exclaims, present participle exclaiming, simple past and past participle exclaimed)

1. (intransitive) To cry out suddenly, from some strong emotion.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Scene 3,^[1]

     I am a soldier, and unapt to weep,

     Or to exclaim on fortune’s fickleness.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 9, p. 33,^[2]

     Very grave and good Women exclaimed against Men who begot Children and then disowned them.

   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, Chapter 12,^[3]

     This wretched note was the finale of Emma’s breakfast. When once it had been read, there was no doing any thing, but lament and exclaim.

   • 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, p. 114,^[4]

     […] he could remember Sally tearing off a rose, stopping to exclaim at the beauty of the cabbage leaves in the moonlight […]

   • 2011, Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child, New York: Knopf, Part 4, Chapter 1, p. 285,^[5]

     […] at the front door below a few guests were leaving, and the bright rectangle widened and narrowed as they slipped out into the night, laughing and exclaiming about the weather.

2. (transitive) To say suddenly and with strong emotion.
   • 1603, Michael Drayton, The Barrons Wars in the Raigne of Edward the Second, London: N. Ling, “Alice Countesse of Salisburie, to the blacke Prince,” p. 31,^[6]

     Must she be forc’d, t’exclaime th’iniurious wrong?

     Offred by him, whom she hath lou’d so long?

     Nay, I will tell, and I durst almost sweare,

     Edward will blush, when he his fault shall heare.

   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, London: J. Osborn, Volume 2, Chapter 40, p. 28,^[7]

     […] her aunt, after having stared at me a good while with a look of amazement, exclaimed, “In the name of heaven! Who art thou?”—

   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, Chapter 12,^[8]

     Without returning any direct reply, Miss Squeers, all at once, fell into a paroxysm of spiteful tears, and exclaimed that she was a wretched, neglected, miserable castaway.

   • “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

   • 2017, André Aciman, Enigma Variations, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, “Manfred,” p. 135,^[9]

     You never pump your arm when you score, you never exclaim anything, you don’t even smile when you fire a perfect backhand straight down the line.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:shout

Derived terms

• exclaimer

Related terms

Translations

Noun

exclaim (plural exclaims)

1. (obsolete) Exclamation; outcry, clamor.
   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act I, Scene 2,^[10]

     Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us not;

     For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,

     Fill’d it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.

   • 1635, John Donne, “His parting form her”:

     Oh fortune, thou’rt not worth my least exclame [...].

English

Etymology

From Middle English singen, from Old English singan, from Proto-West Germanic *singwan, from Proto-Germanic *singwan?, from Proto-Indo-European *seng??-. Cognate with German singen (“to sing”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?ng, IPA^(key): /s??/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

sing (third-person singular simple present sings, present participle singing, simple past sang, past participle sung or (archaic) sungen)

1. (intransitive) To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice.

2. (transitive) To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization.
3. (transitive) To soothe with singing.

4. (transitive, intransitive) Of birds, to vocalise:
   1. (ornithology) To produce a 'song', for the purposes of defending a breeding territory or to attract a mate.
   2. (literary) To produce any type of melodious vocalisation.
5. (intransitive, slang) To confess under interrogation.
6. (intransitive) To make a small, shrill sound.
7. To relate in verse; to celebrate in poetry.
   • 1709, Matthew Prior, Pleasure

     Bid her […] sing / Of human hope by cross event destroyed.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

8. (intransitive) To display fine qualities; to stand out as excellent.

9. (ergative) To be capable of being sung; to produce a certain effect by being sung.
   • 1875, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (volume 118, page 685)

     No song sings well unless it is open-vowelled, and has the rhythmic stress on the vowels. Tennyson's songs, for instance, are not generally adapted to music.

Synonyms

• (confess under interrogation): See also Thesaurus:confess and Thesaurus:rat out

Derived terms

Related terms

• song

Translations

Noun

sing (plural sings)

1. The act, or event, of singing songs.
   • 2002, Martha Mizell Puckett, Hoyle B. Puckett, Memories of a Georgia Teacher: Fifty Years in the Classroom, page 198:

     Some of the young folks asked Mrs. Long could they have a sing at her home that Sunday afternoon; she readily agreed, telling them to come early, bring their songbooks, and have a good sing.

Derived terms

• singsong

See also

• singe

Anagrams

• IGNs, Ings, NGIs, gins, ings, nigs, sign, snig

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch zingen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??/

Verb

sing (present sing, present participle singende, past participle gesing)

1. to sing

Derived terms

• gesonge (verbal adjective)

German

Pronunciation

Verb

sing

1. singular imperative of singen

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from German. First attested in 1368.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [??i??]
• Rhymes: -i??

Noun

sing (plural singek)

1. (archaic) cubit (a unit of linear measure, no longer in use, originally equal to the length of the forearm)

Declension

Derived terms

• singcsont

References

Further reading

• sing in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

Iu Mien

Etymology

From Chinese ? (MC ?i??).

Noun

sing 

1. sound

Zou

Etymology 1

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thii?, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kja?. Cognates include Burmese ????? (hkyang:) and Chinese ? (ji?ng).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si???/

Noun

síng

1. ginger

Etymology 2

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thi?, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *si?. Cognates include Burmese ??? (sac) and Chinese ? (x?n).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si???/

Noun

síng

1. tree

References

• Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 45