Medley Meaning
/ˈmɛdli/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounCombat, fighting; a battle.
nounA collection or mixture of miscellaneous things.
Sentence Examples
He sang a medley of Simon and Garfunkel hits.
This vegetable medley is really good.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The band played a fantastic ____ of classic rock songs from the 1980s.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The band played a ____ of their most popular songs to close out the concert and thrill the audience.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English medle, from Anglo-Norman medlee, Old French medlee, from the feminine past participle of early Medieval Latin misculō (“to mix”). Compare meddle. Doublet of melee.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Thenne came the kyng of Irland and the kynge of the stryete marches to rescowe syre Tristram and sire Palomydes / There beganne a grete medle / & many knyghtes were smyten doune on bothe partyes / and alweyes sir launcelot spared sir Tristram / and he spared hym"
— 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “lxxj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:
"For greater shields they have, than that they can either doe or see ought, and being raunged by hundreds no doubt they will hinder one another in the medley, except some very few"
— 1632, Xenophon, translated by Philemon Holland, Cyrupaedia:
"this medley of philosophy and war"
— 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 31:
"Love is a medley of endearments, jars, / Suspicions, reconcilements, wars."
— 1692, William Walsh, Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant:
"Otherwise , as our Saviour noteth , when the old Cloth was joyned to the new , it made no good medley , but the Rent was made the wors"
— 1631, Thomas Fuller, Comment on Ruth , Chapter 1, verses 9, 10, 11:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The band played a fantastic ____ of classic rock songs from the 1980s.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The band played a ____ of their most popular songs to close out the concert and thrill the audience.