The other day while reading I came across an interesting word. Mellifluous.
Mellifluous [muh-lif-loo-uhs] is an adjective that means sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding. If a mother is screeching at her children, or a boss barking at an employee, or children are bickering, their voices are NOT mellifluous.
However, if your sweetheart says ‘I love you’ or your boss says ‘You get a raise’ or if a friend says ‘You look lovely today,’ those comments are mellifluous to your ears.
Other things can be sweet-sounding: a baby cooing, a light breeze through quaking aspen trees, money jingling in your pocket, someone playing the ukulele (like a young man did on my bus ride to work this morning), rain falling on a farmer’s parched field.
If you are having a good day, or a good rehearsal before a play, or a project going as planned, you could say those experiences were mellifluous (sweetly or smoothly flowing).
Harmonious is a synonym for mellifluous. If your children were getting along and not squabbling, their behavior is mellifluous. If a co-worker speaks nice to you (for once), that is a mellifluous experience. If everybody gets along at a Thanksgiving dinner (when they usually criticize, argue, or complain), that would be a mellifluous gathering.
May you bring many mellifluous sounds into the lives of others.
