chant

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A series of syllables or words that are sung on or intoned to the same note or a limited range of notes.
• noun A canticle or prayer sung or intoned in this manner.
• noun A monotonous rhythmic call or shout, as of a slogan.
• intransitive verb To sing or intone to a chant.
• intransitive verb To celebrate in song.
• intransitive verb To say in the manner of a chant.
• intransitive verb To sing, especially in the manner of a chant.
• intransitive verb To speak monotonously.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To sing; warble; utter with a melodious voice.
• To celebrate in song: as, to chant the praises of Jehovah.
• To sing, as in the church service, in a style between air and recitative. See chant, n.
• To sing; make melody with the voice.
• To sing psalms, canticles, etc., as in the church service, after the manner of a chant.
• To go in full cry: said of hounds.
• noun A vocal melody; a song; especially, now, one that is solemn, slow, or monotonous.
• noun Specifically— A melody composed in the Ambrosian or Gregorian style, following one of the ecclesiastical modes, having often a note for each syllable, and without a strict rhythmical structure: sometimes called a tone; when used in contrapuntal composition, called a canto fermo. A Gregorian melody, usually of ancient origin, intended to be used with a prose text in several verses, several syllables in each verse being recited or intoned upon a single note. A Gregorian chant of this kind has five parts: the intonation, the first dominant or reciting-note, the mediation, the second dominant or reciting-note, and the ending or cadence. A short composition in seven measures, the first and fourth of which contain but one note, whose time-value may be extended at will so as to accompany several syllables or words, while the remaining measures are sung in strict rhythm: commonly called an Anglican chant, because most extensively used in the services of the Anglican Church for the canticles and the psalms. An Anglican chant consists of two parts, the first of three and the second of four measures; each half begins with a reciting-note and ends with a cadence; the first cadence is also called the mediation. A double chant is equal in length to two typical or single chants, that is, contains fourteen measures, four reciting-notes, etc. The distribution of the words of a text for use with a chant is called pointing (which see). The Anglican chant is probably a modernized form of the Gregorian, without an intonation, having the mediation and cadence made strictly rhythmical, and following the modern ideas of tonality and harmony, Any short composition one or more of whose notes may be extended at will so as to accompany several syllables or words.
• noun Formerly also spelled chaunt.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To utter with a melodious voice; to sing.
• transitive verb To celebrate in song.
• transitive verb (Mus.) To sing or recite after the manner of a chant, or to a tune called a chant.
• intransitive verb To make melody with the voice; to sing.
• intransitive verb (Mus.) To sing, as in reciting a chant.
• intransitive verb to sing their praise; to overpraise; to cheat in selling. See Chaunter.
• noun Song; melody.
• noun (Mus.) A short and simple melody, divided into two parts by double bars, to which unmetrical psalms, etc., are sung or recited. It is the most ancient form of choral music.
• noun A psalm, etc., arranged for chanting.
• noun rare Twang; manner of speaking; a canting tone.
• noun in old French poetry, a poem containing five strophes of eleven lines each, and a concluding stanza. -- each of these six parts ending with a common refrain.
• noun See under Gregorian.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb To sing, especially without instruments, and as applied to monophonic and pre-modern music.
• noun Type of singing done generally without instruments and harmony.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically
• noun a repetitive song in which as many syllables as necessary are assigned to a single tone
• verb recite with musical intonation; recite as a chant or a psalm