Meaning & use
musical tune
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Meaning
nouncountable
A series of musical notes that form a pleasant, recognizable melody.
Grammar: Countable: 'a musical tune', 'catchy musical tunes'.
Patterns
- a catchy musical tune
- hum a musical tune
The commercial uses a simple musical tune that stays in your head.
He whistled a cheerful musical tune while he worked.
The film's opening scene is accompanied by a gentle musical tune.
Word forms
| plural | musical tunes |
|---|
Common combinations
- a catchy tune
- That catchy tune has been playing on the radio all week.
- hum a tune
- She hummed a tune as she cooked dinner.
- a familiar tune
- The audience recognized the familiar tune immediately.
Synonyms and how they differ
- melody
- More technical and often used in music writing; 'tune' is the everyday word.
- song
- A song usually has words; a tune can be just the notes.
Word family
- tuneful adjective
- Pleasant to listen to because it has a good melody.
- tuneless adjective
- Unpleasant to listen to because it lacks a clear melody.
Commonly confused: musical tune or tone?
musical tune vs tone
A tone is a single sound or the quality of a sound; a tune is a whole melody made of several notes.
Practice
The ice-cream van plays the same ___ every day.
Choose one answer.
'Tune' is the countable noun for a melody, and 'the same' takes a singular noun. 'Tone' means a single sound quality, and 'tunes' is plural.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “musical tune”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.