Etimology
From Middle English song, sang, from Old English sang, from Proto-West Germanic *sangu, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.
noun
song (countable and uncountable, plural songs)
A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.
(by extension) Any musical composition.
Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
The act or art of singing.
A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.
(ornithology) The distinctive sound that a male bird utters to attract a mate or to protect his territory; contrasts with call; also, similar vocalisations made by female birds.
A low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song.
An object of derision; a laughing stock.
Examples
Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.
The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge
In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.
He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
This subject for heroic song.
The bard that first adorned our native tongue / Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song.
How often the enthusiast has dwelt upon the birds bursting into song, the buds bursting into flower, all nature bursting into life!—as though a state of things in which everything around us is bursting is at all pleasant.
Or take one that is less of an explanation and more of a song , The Spider . I knew all along what I wanted to say about a spider . I wanted to say all the good things I could . For spiders are the one order of creation that I thoroughly dislike. […]
I love hearing the song of canary birds.
That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets.
The robin alone by his soft morning song broke the silence and the solitude which reigned in the forest.
He bought that car for a song.
his [a common soldier's] pay is a song.
Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].
And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.