monotony •\mə-ˈnä-tə-nē, -ˈnät-nē\• noun
1. constancy of tone or pitch or inflection
2. the quality of wearisome constancy, routine, and lack of variety
We recently announced the winners of our 2016 Vocabulary Video Contest. Every Monday for the rest of the school year, we’ll feature a Word of the Day that was the subject of one of our favorite entries.
The word monotony has appeared in 47 New York Times articles in the past year, including on March 22 in the T Magazine article “Beach House’s New Transportive Performances Double as Art” by Hilary Hughes:
The members of the dream-pop duo Beach House tend to spend their time onstage swathed in brilliant hues, or backlit by stars. When Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally take to their instruments (keyboards and guitar, respectively), they’re washed in shades of fuchsia and violet; the outlines of their bodies and the flourish of their movements are the only things that keep them from melting into the saturated field of color behind them. Their backdrop recalls the fluorescent lightscapes of James Turrell — gradual, simple spreads of brilliance that serve as a perfect foil to the ethereal music they’ve been crafting since they met and began to work together in 2004.
… The idea for the performances took root back in 2012, back when Beach House were touring in support of their album “Bloom” and found themselves feeling the monotony of routine. “It’s so intense to play the same show every single night,” Scally says. “We tried to change it up as much as we could. I think somewhere along the line we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be so cool to play your normal show on tour, and then every couple of days play a different show with a different energy entirely?’”
Think you know “monotony”? Quiz yourself: