Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Monotonous in rhythm and tone: Describes a manner of speaking or chanting that has a repetitive, regular, and often unvarying pattern of rising and falling pitch.
   • Chantlike: Characterized by a repetitive, almost musical cadence, similar to chanting.

2. Noun:

   • A regular and monotonous rising and falling intonation: A way of speaking characterized by a repetitive, rhythmic pattern.
   • Informal group singing: Casual, often communal singing of popular or simple songs.

3. Verb:

   • To speak, chant, or declaim in a singsong manner: To utter words with a monotonous, rhythmic cadence.
   • To move as if accompanied by a singsong: To move in a rhythmic, steady, and often laborious way, as if keeping time with a repetitive chant.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:

  • The teacher read the long list in a singsong voice that made the students drowsy.
  • He delivered the poem in a singsong manner, losing its emotional impact.

• Noun:

  • The children's singsong echoed across the playground.
  • The boring lecture was delivered in a dull singsong.

• Verb:

  • The old man would singsong his prayers every morning.
  • The porters singsonged their way up the steep path, their steps in time with their chants.

Advanced Usage

• "In a singsong": Used as an adverbial phrase to describe an action performed with a monotonous rhythm.
  • She recited the multiplication tables in a singsong.

Variants and Related Words

• Singsongy (adj.): An informal variant meaning having a singsong quality.
  • His singsongy delivery was hard to listen to for long.

Synonyms

• Adjective/Noun: Chantlike, monotonous, rhythmic, droning, lilting, cadenced.
• Verb: Chant, intone, drone, recite rhythmically.

Related Phrases

• To lapse into a singsong: To begin speaking in a monotonous, rhythmic tone, often unintentionally.
  • Whenever he was tired, his presentation would lapse into a singsong.

Adjective

1. uttered in a monotonous cadence or rhythm as in chanting
   • their chantlike intoned prayers
   • a singsong manner of speaking

Noun

1. informal group singing of popular songs
2. a regular and monotonous rising and falling intonation

Verb

1. move as if accompanied by a singsong
   • The porters singsonged the travellers' luggage up the mountain
2. speak, chant, or declaim in a singsong