syncopation

[ sing-kuh-pey-shuhn, sin- ]

noun

Music. a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats.
something, as a rhythm or a passage of music, that is syncopated.

Also called counterpoint, counterpoint rhythm. 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.
Grammar. syncope.

Origin of syncopation

1525–35; <Medieval Latin syncopātiōn- (stem of syncopātiō), equivalent to Late Latin syncopāt(us) (see syncopate) + -iōn--ion

Other words from syncopation

non·syn·co·pa·tion, noun

Words Nearby syncopation

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

How to use syncopation in a sentence

Instead, the Meters strutted, turning down the volume and finding unlikely, hip-turning melodies in complex syncopations.
Leo Nocentelli’s long-lost folk-funk album sees the light of day, 50 years later | John Lingan | November 19, 2021 | Washington Post
You would need to go back to the 19th century to find rhythms in popular music with so little syncopation.
Did Led Zeppelin Steal ‘Stairway to Heaven’? | Ted Gioia | May 25, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The result is an effect of syncopation which is peculiarly forceful.
How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. | Henry Edward Krehbiel
The purpose of the time step is to get the syncopation into the dancing step, and establish the "tempo" of the dance.
The Art of Stage Dancing | Ned Wayburn
He moved slowly, painfully, one leg striking the pavement in syncopation, for it was sadly crippled by disease.
Melomaniacs | James Huneker

The rhythm may be said to be a sort of spite-rhythm, very decisive in most cases, but most of the time in syncopation.
Franz Liszt | James Huneker
Suggested by the poster commending a recent Revue as "the last word in syncopation."
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, January 5, 1916 | Various

British Dictionary definitions for syncopation

syncopation

/ (ˌsɪŋkəˈpeɪʃən) /

noun

music
- the displacement of the usual rhythmic accent away from a strong beat onto a weak beat
- a note, beat, rhythm, etc, produced by syncopation
another word for syncope (def. 2)

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

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