medley

[ med-lee ]

noun

, plural med·leys.

1. a mixture, especially of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge; jumble.
2. a piece of music combining tunes or passages from various sources:

   a medley of hit songs from Broadway shows.

adjective

1. Archaic. mixed; mingled.

medley

/ ˈmɛdlɪ /

noun

1. a mixture of various types or elements
2. a musical composition consisting of various tunes arranged as a continuous whole
3. Also calledmedley relay
   1. swimming a race in which a different stroke is used for each length
   2. athletics a relay race in which each leg has a different distance
4. See melee
   an archaic word for melee

adjective

1. of, being, or relating to a mixture or variety

Word History and Origins

Origin of medley¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English noun and adjective medle(e), medlei(e), maedlai(e) “battle, war, quarrel; mixture, balanced mixture,” from Anglo-French, Old French medlee, mellee, noun and adjective use of feminine of past participle of medler “to mix, fight”; meddle

Word History and Origins

Origin of medley¹

C14: from Old French medlee, from medler to mix, quarrel

Example Sentences

The first track was an overture from the game Dragon Quest, according to a list of songs in the medley published by Nikkei.

From Quartz

We stopped at the goal post, and went through a medley of five minutes of all the Penn tunes in a swing version.

From Washington Post

The medley of conservative voters, politicians, activists and political commentators that descended on Dallas this past weekend for this year’s second Conservative Political Action Conference certainly did.

From FiveThirtyEight

It’s also the first simulation to account for the whole medley of physical phenomena thought to influence star formation, researchers report online May 17 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

From Science News

Budweiser Light did this last September when it launched the “Battle of the Best” tournament where some of Twitch’s top streamers and personalities competed against each other in a medley of games.

From Digiday

Not to mention what happens when this medley of men comes back home.

From The Daily Beast

Rumor has it Destiny's Child may be coming out to perform a greatest hits medley in the middle of it.

From The Daily Beast

The jukebox plays a medley of sixties tunes, an apt and agreeable feature.

From The Daily Beast

Years passed and I decided to upload a medley of these ragtime rock songs on YouTube, and that gained some traction.

From The Daily Beast

Thankfully, Monteith's duel with Mr. Schuester provided a perfect opportunity for such a medley.

From The Daily Beast

This monstrous medley gave birth to the macaroni style, the very climax of barbarism.

From Project Gutenberg

There were boxes of cakes, fruit, and eggs; and jinrikishas piled with a medley of gifts.

From Project Gutenberg

I do not know how I could have looked Elfrida in the face again had he indeed risen no more from that medley.

From Project Gutenberg

Three thousand years ago the Italian peninsula presented a veritable medley of races.

From Project Gutenberg

We go ashore in a launch and are met on the quay by a medley of strange folk and a great clamour of voices!

From Project Gutenberg