downbeat
Americannoun
-
the downward stroke of a conductor's arm or baton indicating the first or accented beat of a measure.
-
the first beat of a measure.
adjective
noun
adjective
-
informal depressed; gloomy
-
informal relaxed; unemphatic
Etymology
Origin of downbeat
Vocabulary lists containing downbeat
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.
The results are much more downbeat than you might expect from a man who's renowned for hilarious social media slapdowns and crowd surfing in inflatable dinghies.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
Americans’ downbeat view of the labor market also seems out of step with a low, 4.2% unemployment rate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence is one of the more optimistic readings—and even that is downbeat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
The firm noted that downbeat expectations “in a year of unusually sharp upward revisions, weigh on shares, reducing hope that shares will rebound before year end.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 7, 2026
All the notes before the first strong downbeat of any phrase are the pickup notes to that phrase.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
