grace note

American  

noun

Music.

1. a note not essential to the harmony or melody, added as an embellishment, especially an appoggiatura.

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grace note British  

noun

1. music a note printed in small type to indicate that it is melodically and harmonically nonessential

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Etymology

Origin of grace note

First recorded in 1815–25

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

grace note

The rainbow, however ephemeral, provides more than a grace note.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

In a grace note, the actor plays himself as a young man, too, as though his older self is still stuck in his past.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025

“How to Break” abandons showing for telling long before it hits the end of its nearly two-hour, no-intermission run time, but the design’s visual ambiguity is a welcome grace note.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 5, 2023

Against this symphony of geologic time, the span of 43 years is a mere grace note.

From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2023

The first two of these four-beat forms are dactylic in structure, the former with a postscript note added, the latter with a grace note prefixed.

From Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. by Hugo Münsterberg

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