motoric

[ moh-tawr-ik, -tor- ]

adjective

1. motor ( def 11 ).
2. (of music or musical performance) full of movement or energy.

Other Words From

• mo·tori·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of motoric¹

First recorded in 1925–30; motor + -ic

Example Sentences

But the momentum shifts, the odd meter turns into a motoric 4/4 and then recedes into un-metered, breathy spaces.

From New York Times

Grazyna Bacewicz’s motoric Overture for Orchestra, which opened the program, felt thick, too.

From New York Times

“In the Water” works up to beat-driven psychedelia: motoric like Krautrock, using the sound of dripping water as percussion, flecked with violin and harp sounds, cheerfully offering advice — “Don’t ask for much/Don’t ask if you will ever change” — and kicking up a ruckus before dissolving into a welter of vocal overdubs and a cryptic postscript: “Guilt takes many forms,” they sing.

From New York Times

LCD Soundsystem’s first new song since 2017, for the soundtrack of Noah Baumbach’s film of the Don DeLillo novel “White Noise,” is the band’s latest jaunty, motoric complaint about money and mortality.

From New York Times

The guitarist delivered barbed lines and outbursts of scrabbling chords; the keyboardist chose piercing, nagging tones; the band shared dissonant odd-meter vamps or locked into compulsive, motoric repetitions.

From New York Times