roundelay

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
13
Words With Friends
15
Letters
9
Pronunciation
/ˈɹaʊndɪˌleɪ/ (UK)
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈɹaʊndɪˌleɪ/ (UK) · /ˈɹaʊndəˌleɪ/

Definition of roundelay

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals.
    “It fell upon a holly eve, Hey ho, hollidaye! When holly fathers wont to shrieve, Now gynneth this roundelay.”
    “When merry milkmaids click the latch And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch Twice or thrice his roundelay, Twice or thrice his roundelay; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.”
    “"Ay, fool," said Tristram, "but 'tis eating dry To dance without a catch, a roundelay To dance to." Then he twangled on his harp, And while he twangled little Dagonet stood Quiet as any water-sodden log Stay'd in the wandering warble of a brook;[…]”
    “For then the little birds do sing their sweetest song, all joining in one joyous medley, whereof one may scarce tell one note from another, so multitudinous is that pretty roundelay;[…]”
    “"Instead of being a rollicking bull-necked quarterstaff player with an eye for a wench and a good but untutored voice for roaring a roundelay, he's nothing but a weasel-faced herring-gutted wowser deliberately stuck in a cell to mislead travellers."”
See all 3 definitions

noun

  1. A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals.
    “It fell upon a holly eve, Hey ho, hollidaye! When holly fathers wont to shrieve, Now gynneth this roundelay.”
    “When merry milkmaids click the latch And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch Twice or thrice his roundelay, Twice or thrice his roundelay; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.”
    “"Ay, fool," said Tristram, "but 'tis eating dry To dance without a catch, a roundelay To dance to." Then he twangled on his harp, And while he twangled little Dagonet stood Quiet as any water-sodden log Stay'd in the wandering warble of a brook;[…]”
    “For then the little birds do sing their sweetest song, all joining in one joyous medley, whereof one may scarce tell one note from another, so multitudinous is that pretty roundelay;[…]”
    “"Instead of being a rollicking bull-necked quarterstaff player with an eye for a wench and a good but untutored voice for roaring a roundelay, he's nothing but a weasel-faced herring-gutted wowser deliberately stuck in a cell to mislead travellers."”
  2. A dance in a circle.
  3. Anything having a round form; a roundel.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle French rondelet, diminutive of Old French rondel (French: rondeau). Ending -lay either from lay (“ballad or sung poem”), or from virelay.

Words you can make from roundelay

200+ playable · top: UNDERLAY (12 pts)

Best play underlay 12 points

8-letter words

2 words

7-letter words

11 words

6-letter words

44 words

5-letter words

80 words

4-letter words

62 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to roundelay to make another valid word.

Find your best play with roundelay

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes roundelay, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.