different between sing vs song

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English song, sang, from Old English song, sang (“noise, song, singing, chanting; poetry; a poem to be sung or recited, psalm, lay”), from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *seng??- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ???? (omph?, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /s??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /s??/, /s??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

song (plural songs)

1. A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.
2. (by extension) Any musical composition.
3. Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
   • The bard that first adorned our native tongue / Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song.

4. The act or art of singing.
5. A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.
   • 1833, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Canterbury Pilgrims

     That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets.
6. (ornithology) The distinctive sound that a male bird utters to attract a mate or to protect his territory; contrasts with call; also, similar vocalisations made by female birds.
7. A low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song.
   • 1810, Benjamin Silliman, A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland

     his [a common soldier's] pay is a song.

   • Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].

8. An object of derision; a laughing stock.

   • And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• canticle
• go for a song

Anagrams

• NGOs, NGSO, Ngos, gons, nogs, snog

Atong (India)

Etymology

Cognate with Garo song. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

song

1. village

Derived terms

References

• van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary.

Bikol Central

Noun

song

1. rhinoceros beetle

Chuukese

Adjective

song

1. angry

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English song. Doublet of zang.

Pronunciation

Noun

song m (plural songs)

1. song

   Synonyms: lied, liedje

Derived terms

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse sæing (“bed”), later sæng.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??k/

Noun

song f (genitive singular songar or seingjar, plural seingir or sengur)

1. bed

Declension

See also

• kamar
• sovikamar
• svøvnposi
• svøvnur
• koddi

Garo

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

song

1. village, hamlet
2. classifier for villages

Derived terms

• songjinma
• songsal

Mandarin

Romanization

song

1. Nonstandard spelling of s?ng.
2. Nonstandard spelling of s?ng.
3. Nonstandard spelling of sòng.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• sange, sang, songe, zang, zong, zonge, soong, songge

Etymology

From Old English sang, song, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?n?/, /s??n?/, /san?/, /sa?n?/

Noun

song (plural songes)

1. A song (lyrical music):
   1. Religious or spiritual chanting or hymns.
   2. A exposition or story, especially a sung one.
   3. A song supposed to have occult or magical power.
2. The practice or an instance of singing songs.
3. The sound produced by a bird (rarely other creatures)
4. A tune; non-lyrical music.
5. A quip, declaration, or remark.
6. A poem; a written work in verse.

Declension

Derived terms

• songly

Descendants

• English: song
• Scots: song, sang

References

• “s??ng, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-10-24.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse s?ngr. Akin to English song.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s???/

Noun

song m (definite singular songen, indefinite plural songar, definite plural songane)

1. song

Derived terms

Verb

song

1. past tense of syngja, syngje, synga and synge

References

• “song” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English song.

Noun

song

1. song

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà N?i) IPA^(key): [saw??m??]
• (Hu?) IPA^(key): [?aw??m??]
• (H? Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [?aw??m??] ~ [saw??m??]
• Homophone: xong

Etymology 1

Noun

(classifier cây) song • (????, ????, ????)

1. big rattan

Etymology 2

Sino-Vietnamese word from ? (“window”).

Noun

song

1. (archaic, literary) window
2. Short for ch?n song (“upright post in a paling or railing”).

Derived terms

Etymology 3

Sino-Vietnamese word from ? (“double; pair”).

Prefix

song

1. bi-; double; parallel

Derived terms

Adverb

song

1. (formal) however
2. (formal) but

Derived terms

Zhuang

Etymology

From Proto-Tai *so???, from Middle Chinese ? (MC ????, “two”). Cognate with Thai ??? (s???ng), Northern Thai ???, Lao ??? (s?ng), Lü ??? (?oang), Tai Dam ???, Shan ???? (s?ang), Tai Nüa ???? (sóang), Ahom ???????????????? (song), Bouyei soongl.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /?o????/
• Tone numbers: song¹
• Hyphenation: song

Numeral

song (Sawndip forms ? or ? or ?, old orthography so?)

1. two
   • 2008, Rint Sybesma, Zhuang: A Tai language with some Sinitic characteristics, in From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics (edited by Pieter Muysken), page 246:

     De   fwngz   ndeu   yaeuj   ndaej   song   doengj   raemx   bae!

     3s    hand    one     raise    ACQ    two    bucket    water    PRT

     S/he can lift two buckets of water with one hand!

Usage notes

Used with ndeu rather than it.

Synonyms

• ngeih