syn·co·pa·tion

[sing-kuh-pey-shuhn, sin-]
noun
1.
Music. a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats.
2.
something, as a rhythm or a passage of music, that is syncopated.
3.
Also called counterpoint, counterpoint rhythm. Prosody. the use of rhetorical stress at variance with the metrical stress of a line of verse, as the stress on and and of in Come praise Colonus' horses and come praise/The wine-dark of the wood's intricacies.
4.
Grammar, syncope.

Origin:
1525–35; < Medieval Latin syncopātiōn- (stem of syncopātiō), equivalent to Late Latin syncopāt(us) (see syncopate) + -iōn- -ion

non·syn·co·pa·tion, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To syncopation
00:10
Syncopation is always a great word to know.
So is bezoar. Does it mean:
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
Collins
World English Dictionary
syncopation (ˌsɪŋkəˈpeɪʃən) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  music
 a.  the displacement of the usual rhythmic accent away from a strong beat onto a weak beat
 b.  a note, beat, rhythm, etc, produced by syncopation
2.  another word for syncope

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

syncopation
1532, "contraction of a word by omission of middle sounds," from M.L. syncopationem (nom. syncopatio) "a shortening or contraction," from syncopare "to shorten," also "to faint away, to swoon," from L.L. syncope (see syncope). Musical sense is attested from 1597.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

syncopation

in music, the displacement of regular accents associated with given metrical patterns, resulting in a disruption of the listener's expectations and the arousal of a desire for the reestablishment of metric normality; hence the characteristic "forward drive" of highly syncopated music. Syncopation may be effected by accenting normally weak beats in a measure, by resting on a normal accented beat, or by tying over a note to the next measure

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences
The study appears to be about whether people find syncopation surprising.
Parlous is a delicious example of linguistic syncopation.
The musicians were all jazz-based improvisers, but this music took them into a
  zone bereft of riffing and syncopation.
He also plays at ragtime festivals, and gives concerts almost anywhere lovers
  of syncopation gather.
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