semiquaver

American  

[sem-ee-kwey-ver] / ˈsɛm iˌkweɪ vər /

noun

Music (chiefly British).

1. a sixteenth note.

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semiquaver British  

/ ˈsɛmɪˌkweɪvə /

noun

1. Usual US and Canadian name: sixteenth note.  music a note having the time value of one-sixteenth of a semibreve

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Etymology

Origin of semiquaver

First recorded in 1570–80; semi- + quaver

Example Sentences

But in the next moment Taylor shifts into a learned observation about the sunset, made in “a different tone, thoughtful, adult, a little sad, with the characteristic Elizabethan semiquaver, from a lifetime of lotus eating.”

From New York Times

I vaguely wondered how I might annotate it on a musical stave – a run of semiquavers, a minim’s pause, and triplets: presto agitato!

From The Guardian

One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or demiÐsemiquavers.

From Project Gutenberg

They were sickly things these dancers—crotchets and quavers and semiquavers who had captured the semblance of humanity, who breathed and bowed and capered, merely because musick had conjured them into existence.

From Project Gutenberg

The orderly succession of solos from everybody on every tune, the smoothly cruising swing grooves, and the showers of bebop semiquavers over standard-song chords perhaps make it something of a specialist's preference.

From The Guardian