syncopation
Americannoun
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Music. a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats.
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something, as a rhythm or a passage of music, that is syncopated.
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Also called counterpoint rhythm. Also called counterpoint. 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.
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Grammar. syncope.
noun
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music
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the displacement of the usual rhythmic accent away from a strong beat onto a weak beat
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a note, beat, rhythm, etc, produced by syncopation
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another word for syncope
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of syncopation
1525–35; < Medieval Latin syncopātiōn- (stem of syncopātiō ), equivalent to Late Latin syncopāt ( us ) ( see syncopate) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
If no one's dancing at the school dance, it might be time to ask the DJ to play some music with more syncopation, or a strong, distinct rhythm that makes you want to move. Jazz is the musical genre best known for syncopation, using rhythm and beats in unexpected ways to make exciting, finger-snapping music. Syncopation has been around for a lot longer than that, though — it pops up in works by Bach and Mozart, for example.
Vocabulary lists containing syncopation
Curtain Call: Dance and Theater Terms
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Music - Middle School
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Music - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Miles Hoffman, a music commentator for NPR, has described syncopation as “a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Their sound differed from the melody-rich music of Bob Marley, with a heavier emphasis on the beat - including the pioneering "rockers" rhythm, which introduced more syncopation and energy to the music.
From BBC • Jan. 26, 2026
“The thing is, we're just not sure how she thinks about or understands things like meter, syncopation or anything like that.”
From Salon • Jun. 7, 2025
The production is crystal clear, with rumbling bass, percolating syncopation and lovely acoustic guitars in the bridge.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2024
This syncopation is now so common in all popular music that it has quite forgotten its Cuban roots.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
