Definition of antiphon

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an·ti·phon

(

-f

) KEY

NOUN:

A devotional composition sung responsively as part of a liturgy.
1. A short liturgical text chanted or sung responsively preceding or following a psalm, psalm verse, or canticle.
2. Such a text formerly used as a response but now rendered independently.
A response; a reply: "It would be truer . . . to see [conservation] as an antiphon to the modernization of the 1950s and 1960s" (Raphael Samuel).

ETYMOLOGY:
Late Latin antiphna, sung responses ; see anthem

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