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equal temperament

American  

noun

Music.
  1. the division of an octave into 12 equal semitones, as in the tuning of a piano.


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.

“It’s almost universally accepted that 12-tone equal temperament is the only way to tune, but that’s wrong. It felt important for people to know.”

From New York Times • Dec. 28, 2021

But it also loses in the process a richness, making me wonder what might have happened were it played in a more acoustically natural equal temperament.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 25, 2017

Meanwhile there was no such thing back then as equal temperament.

From The Guardian • Dec. 29, 2016

“Learning a major scale in equal temperament, you’re internalizing an entire worldview,” he said.

From New York Times • Dec. 16, 2016

Major seconds and thirds are larger in Pythagorean intonation than in equal temperament, and minor seconds and thirds are smaller.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

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