syncopation

Etymology

syncopate + -ion The phonological sense first attested in English in the 1530's, the musical sense in the 1590's.

noun

  1. (linguistics, phonology) The contraction of a word by means of loss or omission of sounds or syllables in the middle thereof.
  2. (music) The quality of a rhythm being somehow unexpected, in that it deviates from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beats in a meter.

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/syncopation), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.