cadence
/ˈkeɪ̯dəns/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.12 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A progression of at least two chords which conclude a piece of music, section or musical phrases within it. Sometimes referred to analogously as musical punctuation.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A cadenza, or closing embellishment; a pause before the end of a strain, which the performer may fill with a flight of fancy.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A fall in inflection of a speaker’s voice, such as at the end of a sentence.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Now was the sun in western cadence low."
- "Getting into a good jigging rhythm means making short quick jerks in a regular cadence that might average about one jerk every 1.5 to 2 seconds."
- "You find not the apostrophas, and so miss the accent: let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret."
- "Night has now passed in the Saudi desert and as we hear from Nightline correspondent Forrest Sawyer, the normal cadence of life at the front is about to change."
- "Blustering winds, which all night long / Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull / Seafaring men o'erwatched."
- "The accents […] were in passion's tenderest cadence."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French cadence, from Old Italian cadenza (“conclusion of a phrase of music”), from Latin *cadentia (literally “a falling”), form of cadēns, the present participle of cadō (“to fall, to cease”). The Latin verb is inherited, via Proto-Italic *kadō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱad-e- (“to fall”, thematic present). Doublet of cadenza and chance.
Origin
- Source language: Latin