bal|lade

bal|lade «buh LAHD, ba-», noun.

1. a poem typically having three stanzas of eight or ten lines each, followed by an envoy of half the stanza length. The last line of each stanza and of the envoy are the same, and the same rhyme pattern recurs in each stanza.

2. an instrumental composition without a strict formal design, often of a sentimental character and written for the piano or orchestra.

╂[< French ballade ballad (a reborrowing) Old French; see etym. under ballad (Cf. ↑ballad)]