syncopate
Americanverb (used with object)
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Music.
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to place (the accents) on beats that are normally unaccented.
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to treat (a passage, piece, etc.) in this way.
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Grammar. to contract (a word) by omitting one or more sounds from the middle, as in reducing Gloucester to Gloster.
verb
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music to modify or treat (a beat, rhythm, note, etc) by syncopation
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to shorten (a word) by omitting sounds or letters from the middle
Other Word Forms
- syncopator noun
Etymology
Origin of syncopate
First recorded in 1600–10; Medieval Latin syncopātus (past participle of syncopāre “to shorten by syncope”); syncope, -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Most of the songs vamp through a handful of chords as Keys gives her voice room to leap, to curl, to muse, to syncopate; she has rarely sounded so jazzy and improvisatory.
From New York Times • Dec. 10, 2021
Not many, but enough to start infecting celebrations with doubt, to break up the exact time, the exact place, to syncopate something that used to be whole.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 2, 2019
During a show-pausing turn in “Mary Poppins Returns,” Lin-Manuel Miranda takes center stage to sing and syncopate, and the movie flickers to life.
From New York Times • Dec. 18, 2018
From 1935 the itch to complicate and syncopate gets to him.
From Slate • Dec. 18, 2010
Syncopate a square column, and leave an adhesive salve; syncopate the salve, and leave a person found in a bindery; syncopate again, and leave a prayer.
From St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, July 1878, No. 9 by Dodge, Mary Mapes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
