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syncopation

 - 4 dictionary results

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.
Use syncopation in a Sentence
Origin:
1525–35; < ML syncopātiōn- (s. of syncopātiō), equiv. to LL syncopāt(us) (see syncopate ) + -iōn- -ion
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
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syn·co·pa·tion   (sĭng'kə-pā'shən, sĭn'-)   


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n.  

  1. Music A shift of accent in a passage or composition that occurs when a normally weak beat is stressed.

  2. Something, such as rhythm, that is syncopated.

  3. Grammar Syncope.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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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

Learn more about syncopation with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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