medley

/ˈmɛdli/

/ˈmɛdli/

Other forms: medleys

If you can't decide which of three songs to play, why not play a medley? A medley is one piece of music, made up of passages from other songs.

Medley comes from the Old French word medlee which meant — eek! — hand-to-hand combat. There are times, like when watching the Academy Awards, that a really long medley accompanied by, say, mimes, might make you want to engage in battle, but a better way to remember this word is that it is related to the word, meddle, which means to get mixed up in someone's business.

Definitions of medley

1. noun

   a musical composition consisting of a series of songs or other musical pieces from various sources
   synonyms: pastiche, potpourri

   type of:

   composition, musical composition, opus, piece, piece of music

   a musical work that has been created
2. noun

   a collection containing a variety of sorts of things
   synonyms: assortment, miscellanea, miscellany, mixed bag, mixture, motley, potpourri, salmagundi, smorgasbord, variety

   types:

   grab bag

   an assortment of miscellaneous items

   witch's brew, witches' brew, witches' broth

   a fearsome mixture

   range

   a variety of different things or activities

   selection

   an assortment of things from which a choice can be made

   farrago, gallimaufry, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, melange, mingle-mangle, mishmash, oddments, odds and ends, omnium-gatherum, ragbag

   a motley assortment of things

   alphabet soup

   a confusing assortment

   sampler

   an assortment of various samples

   band

   a range of frequencies between two limits

   type of:

   accumulation, aggregation, assemblage, collection

   several things grouped together or considered as a whole