Library / English Dictionary

SINGER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who sings

Synonyms:

singer; vocaliser; vocalist; vocalizer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("singer" is a kind of...):

instrumentalist; musician; player (someone who plays a musical instrument (as a profession))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "singer"):

yodeller (a singer who changes register rapidly (popular is Swiss folk songs))

warbler (a singer; usually a singer who adds embellishments to the song)

voice ((metonymy) a singer)

torch singer (a singer (usually a woman) who specializes in singing torch songs)

thrush (a woman who sings popular songs)

tenor (an adult male with a tenor voice)

soprano (a female singer)

songster (a person who sings)

rock star (a famous singer of rock music)

rapper (someone who performs rap music)

opera star; operatic star (singer of lead role in an opera)

madrigalist (a singer of madrigals)

alto (a singer whose voice lies in the alto clef)

baritone; barytone (a male singer)

bass; basso (an adult male singer with the lowest voice)

canary (a female singer)

caroler; caroller (a singer of carols)

castrato (a male singer who was castrated before puberty and retains a soprano or alto voice)

chorister (a singer in a choir)

contralto (a woman singer having a contralto voice)

balladeer; crooner (a singer of popular ballads)

folk singer; jongleur; minstrel; poet-singer; troubadour (a singer of folk songs)

hummer (a singer who produces a tune without opening the lips or forming words)

lieder singer (a singer of lieder)

Instance hyponyms:

Madonna; Madonna Louise Ciccone (United States pop singer and sex symbol during the 1980s (born in 1958))

Bob Marley; Marley; Robert Nesta Marley (Jamaican singer who popularized reggae (1945-1981))

Dean Martin; Dino Paul Crocetti; Martin (United States singer (1917-1995))

Ethel Merman; Merman (United States singer who appeared in several musical comedies (1909-1984))

Orbison; Roy Orbison (United States composer and rockabilly tenor popular in the 1950s (1936-1988))

Edith Giovanna Gassion; Edith Piaf; Little Sparrow; Piaf (French cabaret singer (1915-1963))

Paul Bustill Robeson; Paul Robeson; Robeson (United States bass singer and an outspoken critic of racism and proponent of socialism (1898-1976))

Lillian Russell; Russell (United States entertainer remembered for her roles in comic operas (1861-1922))

Paul Simon; Simon (United States singer and songwriter (born in 1942))

Bessie Smith; Smith (United States blues singer (1894-1937))

Kate Smith; Kathryn Elizabeth Smith; Smith (United States singer noted for her rendition of patriotic songs (1909-1986))

Barbra Joan Streisand; Barbra Streisand; Streisand (United States singer and actress (born in 1942))

Sarah Vaughan; Vaughan (United States jazz singer noted for her complex bebop phrasing and scat singing (1924-1990))

Ethel Waters; Waters (United States actress and singer (1896-1977))

Hank Williams; Hiram King Williams; Hiram Williams; Williams (United States country singer and songwriter (1923-1953))

Tammy Wynette; Tammy Wynetter Pugh; Wynette (United States country singer (1942-1998))

Huddie Leadbetter; Leadbelly; Ledbetter (United States folk singer and composer (1885-1949))

Harry Lauder; Lauder; Sir Harry MacLennan Lauder (Scottish ballad singer and music hall comedian (1870-1950))

B. B. King; King; Riley B King (United States guitar player and singer of the blues (born in 1925))

Janis Joplin; Joplin (United States singer who died of a drug overdose at the height of her popularity (1943-1970))

Al Jolson; Asa Yoelson; Jolson (United States singer (born in Russia) who appeared in the first full-length talking film (1886-1950))

Jackson; Michael Jackson; Michael Joe Jackson (United States singer who began singing with his four brothers and later became a highly successful star during the 1980s (born in 1958))

Jackson; Mahalia Jackson (United States singer who did much to popularize gospel music (1911-1972))

Iglesias; Julio Iglesias (Spanish singer noted for his ballads and love songs (born in 1943))

Horne; Lena Calhoun Horne; Lena Horne (United States singer and actress (born in 1917))

Garland; Judy Garland (United States singer and film actress (1922-1969))

Ella Fitzgerald; Fitzgerald (United States scat singer (1917-1996))

Bob Dylan; Dylan (United States songwriter noted for his protest songs (born in 1941))

Dietrich; Maria Magdalene von Losch; Marlene Dietrich (United States film actress (born in Germany) who made many films with Josef von Sternberg and later was a successful cabaret star (1901-1992))

Chevalier; Maurice Chevalier (French actor and cabaret singer (1888-1972))

Cash; John Cash; Johnny Cash (United States country music singer and songwriter (1932-2003))

Bailey; Pearl Bailey; Pearl Mae Bailey (United States singer (1918-1990))

Derivation:

sing (to make melodious sounds)

sing (produce tones with the voice)

sing (deliver by singing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

United States writer (born in Poland) of Yiddish stories and novels (1904-1991)

Synonyms:

Isaac Bashevis Singer; Singer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Sense 3

Meaning:

United States inventor of an improved chain-stitch sewing machine (1811-1875)

Synonyms:

Isaac M. Singer; Isaac Merrit Singer; Singer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

artificer; discoverer; inventor (someone who is the first to think of or make something)

manufacturer; producer (someone who manufactures something)

Credits

 Context examples: 

We will stay till this is finished, Fanny, said he, turning his back on the window; and as it advanced, she had the mortification of seeing him advance too, moving forward by gentle degrees towards the instrument, and when it ceased, he was close by the singers, among the most urgent in requesting to hear the glee again.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

New work by University of Wisconsin-Madison geologists Brad Singer, Brian Jicha and colleagues finds that the most recent field reversal 770,000 years ago took at least 22,000 years to complete, several times longer than previously thought.

(Earth's last magnetic field reversal took far longer than once thought, National Science Foundation)

Markham was the singer, and he sang “When the heart of a man is depressed with care”.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Some years after I had broken with the mother, she abandoned her child, and ran away to Italy with a musician or singer.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The song was considered a great success, and the singer retired covered with laurels.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Then he was given a lodge to keep, exactly as he had feared upon the island; and he still lives, a great favourite, though something of a butt, with the country boys, and a notable singer in church on Sundays and saints' days.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The hulk of an ancient wreck burned with blue fires, in the light of which danced the hula dancers to the barbaric love- calls of the singers, who chanted to tinkling ukuleles and rumbling tom- toms.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Mrs. Strong was a very pretty singer: as I knew, who often heard her singing by herself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The subject seemed strangely chosen for an infant singer; but I suppose the point of the exhibition lay in hearing the notes of love and jealousy warbled with the lisp of childhood; and in very bad taste that point was: at least I thought so.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

During one of the brief calls he made, he artfully led the conversation to music, and talked away about great singers whom he had seen, fine organs he had heard, and told such charming anecdotes that Beth found it impossible to stay in her distant corner, but crept nearer and nearer, as if fascinated.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)