passing note

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noun Music.

a note that is foreign to a harmony and is introduced between two successive chord tones in order to produce a melodic transition.

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Also called passing tone .

Origin of passing note

First recorded in 1720–30

Words nearby passing note

passifloraceous, passim, passing, passing bell, passing lane, passing note, passing shot, passion, passional, passionary, passionate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use passing note in a sentence

Although private Zoom messaging—the virtual equivalent of passing notes in class—may allow for some degree of small talk, it occurs at the expense of learning rather than as a supplement to it.
You Can’t Dissect a Virtual Cadaver - Issue 99: Universality|Michael Denham|May 5, 2021|Nautilus
The big slug happened to hit the suspect in the street, passing through his arm and then striking Police Officer Andrew Dossi.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A passing off-duty school safety officer named Fred Lucas said that he had been told the man was a drug dealer.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
An ace comedic turn that, in lesser hands, would come off as one-note.
Oscars 2015: The Daily Beast’s Picks, From Scarlett Johansson to ‘Boyhood’|Marlow Stern|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Note: UNICOR uses its inmates for everything from call center operators to human demolishers of old computers.
How a ‘Real Housewife’ Survives Prison: ‘I Don’t See [Teresa Giudice] Having a Cakewalk Here’|Michael Howard|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
While Drake is redefining realness, Iggy is effectively “passing.”
The Cultural Crimes of Iggy Azalea|Amy Zimmerman|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
At present, Louis was too self-absorbed by the struggles within him, to look deep into what was passing around him.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter
Again the sallow fingers began to play with the book-covers, passing from one to another, but always slowly and gently.
Bella Donna|Robert Hichens
Accordingly, the question "How far does the note issue under the new system seem likely to prove an elastic one?"
Readings in Money and Banking|Chester Arthur Phillips
In passing to her own chamber she met the Emperor, and, in the agitation of her maternal fears, told him all that had passed.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter
Passing, now, to the other side of elasticity—i.e., contractility—can we say as much?
Readings in Money and Banking|Chester Arthur Phillips

British Dictionary definitions for passing note

passing note

US passing tone

noun

music a nonharmonic note through which a melody passes from one harmonic note to the nextCompare auxiliary note

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