a cappella vs drone

a cappella

noun
  • A vocal performance with no instrumental accompaniment. 

adv
  • In a manner of a choir with no instrumental accompaniment; literally, "in the style of the (Sistine) Chapel (in Rome)", such as a musical Mass done a cappella. 

adj
  • Singing solely or mainly without instrumental accompaniment. 

  • Related to a form of purely vocal music mostly associated with American college performance groups. 

drone

noun
  • A humming or deep murmuring sound. 

  • One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe. 

  • One who performs menial or tedious work. 

  • A person without the ability to think critically and independently, especially one who follows a group blindly; a non-player character. 

  • A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). 

  • A Toyota HiAce or a similar van, especially one used by Ugandan state agents to kidnap opposition members. 

  • A male ant, bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen. 

  • A genre of music that uses repeated lengthy droning sounds. 

  • A low-pitched hum or buzz. 

verb
  • To speak in a monotone way. 

  • To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz. 

  • To kill with a missile fired by unmanned aircraft. 

How often have the words a cappella and drone occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )