polyphony

English

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πολυφωνία (poluphōnía); equivalent to poly- +‎ -phony.

polyphony (countable and uncountable, plural polyphonies)

(music) Musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).
Hyponym: organum
(literature) The quality of a text of being able to be read in more than one way.
the polyphony of a biblical passage

musical texture consisting of several independent melodic voices

Albanian: gjâmë f, gjëmë (sq) f, vajtim (sq) f, pleqërishte (sq) f, lashtërishtë f
Armenian: պոլիֆոնիա (hy) (polifonia)
Azerbaijani: çoxsəslilik
Belarusian: поліфані́я f (polifaníja), шматгало́ссе n (šmathalóssje), мнагагало́ссе n (mnahahalóssje)
Bulgarian: полифо́ния f (polifónija), многогла́сие n (mnogoglásie)
Catalan: polifonia (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 複音 / 复音 (zh) (fùyīn)
Danish: polyfoni
Dutch: polyfonie (nl) f
Finnish: moniäänisyys, polyfonia (fi)
French: polyphonie (fr) f
Georgian: პოლიფონია sg (ṗoliponia), მრავალხმიანობა (mravalxmianoba)
German: Mehrstimmigkeit f, Polyphonie f
Greek: πολυφωνία (el) f (polyfonía)
Hebrew: פוליפוניה
Icelandic: fjölröddun f, pólýfónía f
Italian: polifonia (it) f
Japanese: ポリフォニー
Korean: 다성음악 (daseong'eumak)
Persian: چندصدایی (fa) sg
Polish: polifonia (pl) f
Portuguese: polifonia (pt) f
Romanian: polifonie (ro) f
Russian: полифони́я (ru) f (polifoníja), многоголо́сие (ru) n (mnogogolósije)
Slovene: polifonija f
Spanish: polifonía (es) f
Swedish: polyfoni (sv) c
Ukrainian: поліфоні́я (uk) f (polifoníja), багатоголо́сся (uk) n (bahatoholóssja)

quality of a text of being able to be read in more than one way