Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having a pleasant and fluid sound.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Flowing or dropping like honey; hence, sweetly or smoothly flowing, especially in sound.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Flowing as with honey; smooth; flowing sweetly or smoothly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Flowing like honey.
- adjective Sweet and smooth; generally used of a person's voice, tone or writing style.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective pleasing to the ear
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Then again, he did use the word "mellifluous" just for flare -- maybe saying, "amen" is just some literary device we don't understand yet ...
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I was pleased to see the word "mellifluous" in today's post, especially as your use of it was so apt.
Public Servitude: Making the Streets Safe for Absurdity BikeSnobNYC 2009
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Then there were words which were beautiful to hear, which had a rich sound -- words like "mellifluous" and "brocade" and "Cleopatra."
Missy Dana Gatlin
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Smokey Robinson coined the term "quiet storm" to describe a certain kind of mellifluous R&B back in the mid-70s, and the four-times-platinum Diamond Life, which won the BRIT Award for Best Album in 1985, and its attendant four singles, helped give that gently turbulent music a wide, even international audience.
BBC - Ouch 2010
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Smokey Robinson coined the term "quiet storm" to describe a certain kind of mellifluous R&B back in the mid-70s, and the four-times-platinum Diamond Life, which won the BRIT Award for Best Album in 1985, and its attendant four singles, helped give that gently turbulent music a wide, even international audience.
BBC - Ouch 2010
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Senator John McCain, who has not known as a mellifluous orator, is already playing the political game of lowering expectations for his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis next month – particularly since Senator Barack Obama will deliver his speech before the Democrats at the Denver Broncos’ football stadium.
McCain on His Convention Speech - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2008
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Marian Evans with her long, weird, dreamy face; Lewes, with his big brow and keen thoughtful eyes; Browning, pale and spruce, his eye like a skipper's cocked-up at the weather; Peacock, with his round, mellifluous speech of the old Greeks; David Gray, great-eyed and beautiful, like Shelley’s ghost; Lord Houghton, with his warm worldly smile and easy-fitting enthusiasm.
The Idler Magazine, Vol III. May 1893 An Illustrated Monthly Various
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Seek ye then, fair daughters, the possession of that inward grace, whose essence shall permeate and vitalize the affections, adorn the countenance, make mellifluous the voice, and impart a hallowed beauty even to your motions.
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The leader of the LDK, the forever silk scarfed and mellifluous Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, compared himself openly and blushlessly to Vaclav Havel and the Kosovar struggle to the Velvet Revolution.
Terrorists and Freedom Fighters Samuel Vaknin
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The voice on the Route-8 bus pronounces the names of each bus stop in perfect, mellifluous native Hawaiian: "Kuhio and Lili'uokalani," the recording says as the bus approaches a stop on the way to Waikiki Beach.
valse commented on the word mellifluous
Wonderful etymology: "flowing with honey." The word can be used in that literal sense, but the "metaphorical" sense (e.g. to describe someone's voice or movement) just works really nicely.
January 14, 2007
seanmeade commented on the word mellifluous
mellifluous is such a great sounding word! ;-)
March 26, 2007
artistx commented on the word mellifluous
Doesn't it just flow! Great word
April 19, 2007
ravages commented on the word mellifluous
smooth, sweet, feminine.
describing a language?
of greek origin(?)
December 19, 2007
bilby commented on the word mellifluous
Honey doesn't flow much and creamed honey doesn't flow at all.
December 19, 2007
chesler commented on the word mellifluous
This was a favorite of the greatest orator I ever had the honor to learn from, Richard Sodikow, Speech & Debate Coach, The Bronx HS of Science. When he said it, he demonstrated just how well it flowed like honey past his lips.
March 2, 2008
frindley commented on the word mellifluous
See also grandiloquent/grandiloquence.
Mellifluous grandiloquence is something else altogether!
March 16, 2008
prasadkdr commented on the word mellifluous
Mellifluous means pleasing to the ear
April 28, 2008
yarb commented on the word mellifluous
I am not as mellifluous as Sir John Betjeman.
- Peter Reading, Opinions of the Press, from Fiction, 1979
June 26, 2008
chicie commented on the word mellifluous
honey should be included in the definition.
this is an amazing word, almost an onomatopoeia.
July 22, 2008
nlaroche commented on the word mellifluous
Is there a visual equivalent to this word? I'd love to know it.
September 24, 2008
gangerh commented on the word mellifluous
Eye candy?
September 24, 2008
vanishedone commented on the word mellifluous
Photogenic?
September 24, 2008
mollusque commented on the word mellifluous
Similar in pattern of derivation? Probably not. Similar in meaning, yes, but finding a word that means only "pleasing to the eye" and hasn't been broadened to include other senses (in both senses) is tough.
How about beauteous or picturesque?
September 24, 2008
nlaroche commented on the word mellifluous
Similar in pattern, yes, I think is what I meant to imply by my question... I love the beauty of mellifluous and "picturesque" just doesn't compare. Perhaps I'm still on a hunt.
September 25, 2008
savingrace commented on the word mellifluous
mellifluous- i first became familiar with this word while reading june jordan. she used it eloquently, with great image and soul. she described a biblical land overflowing with milk and honey. the word is certainly a graceful and refreshing throwback to a chimerical land laced with sweet leche y miel.
November 22, 2008
andreatheawesome commented on the word mellifluous
I always imagine the visual image of the word mellifluous to be a soft brown/chocolate wavy line, flowing genltly and quietly in/on a cream colored space.
Mellifluous is a mellifluous word.
December 3, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word mellifluous
It is indeed.
I always start singing the truffula song from The Lorax. However the hell you spell truffula...
December 3, 2008
etaoinsrdlu commented on the word mellifluous
(smellifluous: Pleasing to the nose?)
January 17, 2009
mcgelligot commented on the word mellifluous
I found a reference to mellifluous in regard to the flow of the written word at Frog Princeps it is a blog:
"The book rewards the reader with a mellifluous flow of language that will startle, intrigue and bewitch the reader."
November 14, 2009
Jubjub commented on the word mellifluous
This word doesn't work. It never has. It's too ... too what? Too sweet? Too obvious? Too forced? Too tongue-tying? And the imagery it evokes is sticky, slow, and viscous-- sort of the opposite of what it wants to do.
November 14, 2009
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word mellifluous
I imagine this word to be undulating and waving gently, streaked a strange combination of light blue and light brown, surrounded by miniscule green and yellow squares.
November 20, 2009
yarb commented on the word mellifluous
In the parlance of our times, synaesthetic much?
(Actually I find that description every bit as nauseating as the word, so... nice one!)
November 20, 2009
28712 commented on the word mellifluous
(too) often used in Carnatic music album notes....
November 22, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word mellifluous
Mellifluous is an example of a word the fantasy of which has overtaken the reality. One imagines honeycomb as it is taken from the hive, dripping with the clear lightly coloured fluid and all the Marie Antoinette stuff, but she ain't going to recover refined honey, still less go out there with her protective suit and visor to harvest the comb from the hive. The fantasy is of a land overflowing with milk and honey, the reality is that these benefits have to be won by the labour of the beekeeper and the milkmaid. Little wonder that mellifluous is generally associated with the quality of the sound of music or of words, spoken or sung.
December 7, 2011
hunnypot03 commented on the word mellifluous
hi everyone im new here!!:))
],
xxx stripper,
xxx strippers,
April 10, 2012
dailyword commented on the word mellifluous
I had this word yesterday on my Word Of The Day app on my Nook Color.
June 5, 2012
mat8iou commented on the word mellifluous
Used on the Radio 4 to describe the speeches of Martin Luther King
April 4, 2018