Other forms: harmonies
Harmony is different parts fitting together so well that they sound or feel like one thing. Two singers holding different notes that ring sweetly together; a room where the walls, the rug and the curtains do not fight each other.
In music, harmony is the exact term for the notes that sit under or beside the tune: the chords a guitarist strums, the second voice in a choir. Singing in harmony is not singing in unison, and the difference matters. In unison everybody is on the same note; in harmony they are on different notes that agree. Away from music, harmony is peace between people or things, and it takes WITH: living in harmony with your neighbours, in harmony with nature. The adjective is harmonious, the verb is harmonise, and the opposite in both worlds is discord.
1nounharmonyA state in which people or things exist together peacefully and agree with each other.~33%
“The two families have lived in harmony on the same street for thirty years.”
2nounmusicIn music, notes sounded at the same time as the melody to make chords; the way chords are built and joined.~65%
“The sisters sang the last verse in harmony and the room went quiet.”
3nounpleasingA pleasing arrangement of parts such as colours, shapes or ideas.~2%
“There is a harmony to the old square that the new block ruins.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
The Greek behind it means to fit together. Harmony is parts that fit: notes at the same time, or people in the same house.
hooks ontofit
Harmony reached English through Middle English armonye and Old French, from Latin harmonia, from Ancient Greek harmonia, which meant a joint or a union as well as a concord of sounds. It is tied to the Greek verb harmozo, to fit together, and behind that a Proto-Indo-European root h₂er- meaning to join or fix together. So the word began in carpentry: harmony is where two pieces are fitted so cleanly that the join holds.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂er- — to join, fit, fix together
Ancient Greek
ἁρμονία — joint, union, agreement, concord of sounds
Latin
harmonia
Old French
harmonie,armonie
Middle English
armonye
English, today
harmony
Built from
From Middle English armonye, from Old French harmonie,armonie, from Latin harmonia, from Ancient Greek ἁρμονία (“joint, union, agreement, concord of sounds”), either from or cognate with ἁρμόζω (“to fit together”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂er- (“to join, fit, fix together”). 1602. a doublet of harmonia.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA