clef
Americannoun
-
clefs
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of clef
1570–80; < Middle French < Latin clāvis key
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.
See Examples For:
Titled “Fiesta” in drafts, the novel is a roman à clef through and through, a story that may have been news across the Atlantic but rang clear as a church bell through the Latin Quarter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
It is not signed by Chopin, but the handwriting includes his distinctive bass clef.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2024
The story quoted a few skeptics—among them the writer Harry Monaghan, who’d written a well-received roman à clef five years prior, and who had a regular column in the Post.
From Slate ● May 27, 2023
Her third book, “American Wife,” was a darkly shaded roman à clef about a woman very much like First Lady Laura Bush.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2023
Choose a clef in which you need to practice recognizing notes above and below the staff in Figure 1.13.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
One of Sacks’ patients, for example, found that the embroidered border of his bathmat tended to transform into elaborate staves and clefs of music.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 22, 2013
The 3-D visuals during Franz Schubert are also uninspiring: the white smudges washing across the black screen aren't a patch on the spaceships and cascading treble clefs we get later.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 10, 2013
But the Sourcebook also includes such arbitrary signs as plus and minus in mathematics and the clefs in music.
From Time Magazine Archive
He studied at the Damrosch Institute of Musical Art, sang in choirs, doodled clefs & staffs on tablecloths and phone pads and dreamed of a career in music.
From Time Magazine Archive
Figure 1.8: It is rare these days to see the G and F clefs in these nonstandard positions.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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