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lilt

UK/lɪlt/US/lɪlt/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,495 of 15,258neutral

A lilt is a pleasant rise and fall in a voice or a tune. An Irish lilt, a lilting accent, spoke with a lilt.

It is used most of accents — a Welsh or Irish lilt — where it names a musical quality in the intonation rather than the vowels. In music it means a light swinging rhythm. Note that the word is Middle English and its origin beyond that is unknown.

Definitions of lilt

  1. 1nounliltA pleasant rise and fall in a voice or a tune.C2

    “She spoke with a soft Welsh lilt that made every sentence sound like a song.”

lilt is a rhythm of speech.

Where it comes from

Middle English lilten is of unknown origin. It first meant to sound or to sing.

  1. Middle English

    lilten

  2. English, today

    lilt

From Middle English lilten, lulten.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

lilt in the wild

  • Nice mellow strings give the tune soft lilt as the tale of fond affection unravels." Record World said "Levi Stubbs' voice still brings chills to the spine.

    Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)

  • Riding a solid rail, chirp chants it out with a contagious lilt.

    The House of Blue Lights (song)

  • "Fly Away" has sublime hooks, with the keyboard holding the song down and the lilt of Cummings' high notes reeling you in. - Kaitlin Ruether, Exclaim!

    Trust an Amateur

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.