pentatonic

American  

[pen-tuh-tahn-ik] / ˌpɛn təˈtɑn ɪk /

adjective

1. Music. (of a scale) having five tones to an octave, such as the black keys on a piano.

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Other Word Forms

• pentatonicism noun
• pentatonics noun

Example Sentences

"It reminds me a lot of music from South Asia, melded with the pentatonic scale which reminds me more of Arab music, along with the African percussion sounds that come through," said concert-goer Joseph Badawi-Crook.

From BBC • Dec. 27, 2025

Built on a pentatonic scale, “Summertime” gathers within its modest frame the sound world of black folk tradition.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory created what they call “music of the spheres” for the TOI 178 system by associating a sound on a pentatonic scale to each of the five planets.

From Salon • Feb. 6, 2024

His modal vocabulary, flecked with pentatonic and other outré accents, could be profoundly ambiguous — sometimes stark, as in “Job,” a ballet in all but name, and sometimes discomforting, as in the otherworldly Sixth.

From New York Times • Oct. 12, 2022

It is a pentatonic raga, which means that only 5 pitches are used, Sa, Re, Ga, Pa and Dha.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin