syncopation
Americannoun
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Music. a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats.
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something, as a rhythm or a passage of music, that is syncopated.
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Also called counterpoint rhythm. Also called counterpoint. Prosody. the use of rhetorical stress at variance with the metrical stress of a line of verse, as the stress on and and of in Come praise Colonus' horses and come praise/The wine-dark of the wood's intricacies.
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Grammar. syncope.
noun
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music
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the displacement of the usual rhythmic accent away from a strong beat onto a weak beat
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a note, beat, rhythm, etc, produced by syncopation
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another word for syncope
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of syncopation
1525–35; < Medieval Latin syncopātiōn- (stem of syncopātiō ), equivalent to Late Latin syncopāt ( us ) ( see syncopate) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
If no one's dancing at the school dance, it might be time to ask the DJ to play some music with more syncopation, or a strong, distinct rhythm that makes you want to move. Jazz is the musical genre best known for syncopation, using rhythm and beats in unexpected ways to make exciting, finger-snapping music. Syncopation has been around for a lot longer than that, though — it pops up in works by Bach and Mozart, for example.
Vocabulary lists containing syncopation
Curtain Call: Dance and Theater Terms
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Music - Middle School
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Music - High School
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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.
Miles Hoffman, a music commentator for NPR, has described syncopation as “a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
This is bass-heavy dance music, full of funky syncopation and skittering drums, often played by Tom Skinner of jazz band Sons Of Kemet.
From BBC • Mar. 4, 2026
Before long, she was able to do this with music recorded live in a studio with natural fluctuations, complex instrumentation and syncopation, meaning different beats were emphasized in different measures, Cook explained.
From Salon • Jun. 7, 2025
The production is crystal clear, with rumbling bass, percolating syncopation and lovely acoustic guitars in the bridge.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2024
Secondly, there was a particular type of syncopation that originated in son that proved irresistible to late-twentieth-century ears.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
