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 (“I fall, I 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.

noun

1. The act or state of declining or sinking.
2. The measure or beat of movement.
   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. 1993, Ken Schultz, “Terror of the deep”, in Field and Stream, volume 98, number 5, page 102
3. Balanced, rhythmic flow.
   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. 2 December 1991, “At the Saudi-Kuwaiti Border”, in ABC Nightline
4. The general inflection or modulation of the voice, or of any sound.
   Then away at last they sped to the house or bedside of some elderly and worthy person, and Pym sat fascinated to see how swiftly Rick trimmed his manner to suit theirs, how naturally he slipped into the cadences and vernacular that put them most at ease, and how the love of God came into his good face when he talked about Liberalism and Masonry and his dear dead father, God rest him, and a firstclass rate of return, ten percent guaranteed plus profits for as long as you're spared. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
   The cadence of Raimey's voice is pure Down-Easter Maine 30 December 1991, David Holmstrom, “Raimey: A Breath of Fresh Ayah”, in Christian Science Monitor
5. (music) 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.
6. (music) A cadenza, or closing embellishment; a pause before the end of a strain, which the performer may fill with a flight of fancy.
7. (speech) A fall in inflection of a speaker’s voice, such as at the end of a sentence.
8. (dance) A dance move which ends a phrase.
   The cadence in a galliard step refers to the final leap in a cinquepace sequence.
9. (fencing) The rhythm and sequence of a series of actions.
10. (running) The number of steps per minute.
11. (cycling) The number of revolutions per minute of the cranks or pedals of a bicycle.
12. (military) A chant that is sung by military personnel while running or marching; a jody call.
13. (heraldry) Cadency.
14. (horse-riding) Harmony and proportion of movement, as in a well-managed horse.
15. (horseracing) The number of strides per second of a racehorse, measured when the same foot/hoof strikes the ground
16. (software engineering) The frequency of regular product releases.
    In this third case, releasing more frequently, the PSI cadence becomes a planning cadence, rather than a release cadence. 2010 12, Dean Leffingwell, Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and the Enterprise, Addison-Wesley, page 317
    We recommend aiming for a release cadence of no more than six months, with a goal of getting it down to three months or shorter. 2012, Scott Ambler, Mark Lines, Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner's Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise, IBM Press, page 227
    This happens when the installation cadence in production is slower than the release cadence of the development teams. 2016 9, Jaokim Verona, Michael Duffy, Paul Swartout, Learning DevOps: Continuously Develop Better Software, Packt Publishing, page 47

verb

1. (transitive) To give a cadence to.
   there was besides, in an already dominating and growing element, a motive that was stronger and more enduring than enthusiasm —an implacable antagonism which acted side by side with the cause of the Union as a perpetual impelling force against the social conditions of the South, controlling the counsels of the government, and cadencing the march of its armies to the chorus: John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, But his soul is marching on! 1897, Don Carlos Buell, “Why the Confederacy Failed”, in The Century, volume 53
   In this march to the City of the Dead," scores upon scores of the best musical organizations of the nation were in line, whose funeral dirges cadenced' the great wail of a bereft people. 1910, Publication: Illinois State Historical Society, Illinois State Historical Library, number 14, page 182
   Example 10a gives a melody for one endecasyllabic line of verse; there are various ways of utilizing it, including Rore's choice of cadencing the first line on the third scale degree, for a two-line segment of an ottava stanza. 1990, Lewis Lockwood, Edward H. Roesner, Essays in musicology: a tribute to Alvin Johnson, page 120
2. (transitive) To give structure to.
   It was the Exile, however, which cadenced the rhythm of Jewish existence 1966, Joseph Leon Blau, Modern varieties of Judaism, page 158
   They are neither mentioned specifically in the Constitution, nor in the Federalist Papers that cadenced the nationalist debates. 2000, David C. Hammack, Making the Nonprofit Sector in the United States, page 256
   ... an idea taken up by Percier and Fontaine, who also supplied the Corinthian order and transverse arcades cadencing the gallery's length today 2004, Andrew Ayers, The architecture of Paris: an architectural guide, page 38