definitions

eighth note

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noun Music.

a note having one eighth of the time value of a whole note; quaver.

Nearby words

eightfold way, eighth, eighth amendment, eighth commandment, eighth cranial nerve, eighth note, eighth rest, eighthly, eightieth, eightpenny, eights

Origin of eighth note

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for eighth note

  • Sixteenth-notes may be used in place of the eighth-note, but should be approached and left step-wise.

    A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons|Friedrich J. Lehmann

  • The second and third movements each occupy the duration of an eighth-note.

    The Fascinating Boston|Alfonso Josephs Sheafe

  • In a slow tempo it may serve you to think of the second eighth-note of the triplet as being subdivided into two sixteenths.

    Piano Playing|Josef Hofmann

  • In the second bar a note which the editor had taken for an eighth-note was explained by the Composer as being a grace-note.

    The Shadow World|Hamlin Garland

British Dictionary definitions for eighth note

eighth note

noun

US and Canadian music a note having the time value of an eighth of a semibreveAlso called (in Britain and certain other countries): quaver
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012