What does ballad mean?
A ballad is fundamentally a song or poem that tells a story. In its traditional sense, it refers to a narrative composition in short stanzas, typically with a strong rhythm and simple rhymes, that recounts dramatic events — tales of love, betrayal, heroism, or the supernatural. Folk ballads were passed down orally through generations before being collected and written down, particularly in Britain and Ireland. Poets such as Coleridge and Keats later adapted this folk form into literary art, giving rise to the 'literary ballad.' In contemporary usage, the word has acquired a second meaning: a slow, emotionally charged song, especially a romantic one, common in pop and rock music and often called a power ballad when performed by a rock act. The word derives from the Old French 'balade,' ultimately from the Latin 'ballare' meaning to dance, reflecting the fact that early ballads accompanied dancing. Today, 'ballad' bridges centuries of musical and poetic tradition, making it a rich term in both literary and everyday conversation.
nounA ballad is a song or poem that tells a story, traditionally in short stanzas with a regular rhyme scheme, often passed down orally; in modern popular music it also denotes a slow, sentimental song.
- A narrative song or poem, especially one in traditional folk style telling a dramatic story in simple stanzas.
- A slow, sentimental love song, especially in rock or pop music (a 'power ballad').
"The folk singer performed an old Scottish ballad about a shipwrecked sailor."
"The child learned 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' as a classic example of the literary ballad."
"The band closed the concert with an emotional power ballad that had the audience swaying."
Standard pluralization; used across all senses of the noun.
"The archive contains hundreds of printed ballads from the seventeenth century."
Every power ballad on your playlist owes its name to medieval dancing songs — 'ballad' comes from the Latin word for dance.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of ballad
The word 'ballad' entered English from the Old French 'balade,' which itself derived from the Provençal 'balada' meaning a song for dancing, from the Late Latin verb 'ballare' ('to dance'), ultimately from Greek 'ballizein.' The same Latin root gives us 'ballet' and related dance words. Ballads were originally sung to accompany dancing, but over time the term came to describe narrative songs and poems regardless of whether they were danced to.
Related word forms
How ballad is actually used
In literary contexts, 'ballad' carries connotations of oral tradition, folklore, and storytelling; in popular music, it simply signals a slow, emotional song. The plural sense distinction is worth noting: a literary ballad is defined by its narrative form, while a pop ballad is defined by tempo and mood rather than story content.
Easily confused with ballad
A ballade is a fixed French poetic form of three stanzas and a refrain, whereas a ballad is a narrative song or poem — the two words share a root but denote different forms.