n. 1. A devotional composition sung responsively as part of a liturgy. 2. a. A short liturgical text chanted or sung responsively preceding or following a psalm, psalm verse, or canticle. b. Such a text formerly used as a response but now rendered independently. 3. A response; a reply: "It would be truer ... to see [conservation] as an antiphon to the modernization of the 1950s and 1960s" (Raphael Samuel). [Late Latin antiphōna, sung responses; see ANTHEM.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.