ninth chord

American  

noun

Music.

1. a chord formed by the superposition of four thirds.

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ninth chord British  

noun

1. Often shortened to: ninth.  a chord much used in jazz and pop, consisting of a major or minor triad with the seventh and ninth added above the root

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Etymology

Origin of ninth chord

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Palestrina, Monteverde and Peri, who are famed, the one for having discovered the dominant ninth chord, and the other for the invention of opera.

From Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University by Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)

A ninth chord consists of a fundamental with its third, fifth, seventh, and ninth.

From Music Notation and Terminology by Gehrkens, Karl Wilson

It ends hauntingly with an unresolved major ninth chord on the dominant of the dominant.

From Contemporary American Composers Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and Compositions by Hughes, Rupert