Other forms: musicals
Musical means to do with music, or naturally good at it. A musical family, a musical instrument, she is very musical.
The two senses are different and both common: musical training is about music, and a musical child has an aptitude for it. It also describes any pleasant sound: a musical laugh. As a noun, a musical is a play or film in which the story is carried by songs — a West End musical, a film musical. Note musical chairs, the party game, which is also used for any pointless reshuffling of people between posts.
1adjectivemusicTo do with music.
“She plays three musical instruments: the piano, the violin and the flute.”
2adjectivemusicalNaturally good at music.
“Nobody else in the family is remotely musical.”
3nounplayA play or film in which songs carry the story.
“The musical ran for eleven years.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
musical is a quality relating to music.
Latin musica comes from the Muses, the nine Greek goddesses of the arts. Music, museum and amuse all descend from them, so every song and every gallery is named after the same nine figures.
Proto-Indo-European
*men- (think)
Latin
mūsica — music
Medieval Latin
mūsicālis
Middle English
musical
English, today
musical
From Middle English musical, from Old French, from Medieval Latin mūsicālis, from Latin mūsica (“music”) ālis; equivalent to music + al.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA