musical

Pluralmusicals

1. 1
   adjective

   Relating to music, or to its performance or notation.

   He has a wide range of musical interests, from jazz to opera.

   The festival celebrates musical traditions from around the world.

   Note

   The relational sense the others grow from: Middle English musical, via Old French from Medieval Latin mūsicālis, which is Latin mūsica plus the adjective suffix -ālis. In English terms it is simply music plus -al. Here the word sorts things rather than praising them, as in musical instruments and musical proportion. That is the test against the "melodious" meaning: a musical instrument can sound dreadful, but a musical voice cannot.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A stage show or film involving singing, dancing, and musical numbers performed by the cast, in addition to acting.

   The new Broadway musical sold out within hours of opening night.

   She wrote the songs for a musical based on a famous novel.

   Note

   Theater sets the noun against the straight play, drama without songs. Steven Adler draws that contrast in On Broadway (2004), noting that no straight play rivals the life span or grosses of the blockbuster musicals. The adjective has simply become a countable noun, with the regular plural musicals. It takes the usual stage modifiers: a Broadway musical, a hit musical, a blockbuster musical.

3. 3
   adjective

   Pleasing to the ear; melodious and harmonious, with the agreeable qualities of music.

   The poet's lines have a musical flow when read aloud.

   His deep, musical voice carried easily to the back of the hall.

   Similarmelodious, melodic, tuneful, harmonious, lyrical

   Oppositediscordant, harsh, grating, tuneless

4. 4
   adjective

   Fond of music, discerning about it, or gifted and skilled in it.

   He's remarkably musical, able to play almost any tune by ear.

   A musical child often hums along before learning to speak.

   Oppositeunmusical, tone-deaf

5. 5
   adjective

   Describing a class of games in which players move while music plays and must take a fixed position when it stops; by extension, any situation in which people repeatedly swap positions.

   Each child scrambled for a seat in the noisy round of musical chairs.

   After three resignations, the department turned into a game of musical chairs.

   Note

   A pattern built on the party game: the adjective stands before a plural noun naming whatever keeps changing hands. Musical chairs is the model, but the frame stretches freely. Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) has "musical beds" as a faculty sport, and people play musical seats or musical houses. It usually follows play or a game of, and political writing uses it for parties that split and merge in quick succession.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A social gathering or party at which music is performed for the guests; a musicale.

   The countess hosted a musical, with a soprano and a string quartet performing for her guests.

   After dinner the family attended a musical given by their neighbors.

   Similarrecital, concert

   Note

   An older social use, probably archaic or obsolete, in which a musical is a gathering held for musical entertainment rather than a staged production. Modern writers would say musicale. Using musical this way today invites readers to picture the stage show, so it is best kept to historical writing or period dialogue, where context makes the party unmistakable.

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