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psalm

Pronunciation: /sɑːm/

The English word “psalm” has 3 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God.
  2. One of the hymns by David and others, collected into one book of the Old Testament, or a modern metrical version of such a hymn for public worship.

verb

  1. To extol in psalms; to make music; to sing

Etymology

From Middle English salm or psalme, from Old English psealm, later reinforced from Old French psalme (modern French psaume), both from Latin psalmus, from Ancient Greek ψαλμός (psalmós, “the sound emanating from twitching or twanging perhaps with the hands or fingers, mostly of musical strings”) (from ψάλλω (psállō, “to make a sound by striking, touching, plucking, rubbing, twanging, or…

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