syncopate

[ sing-kuh-peyt, sin- ]

verb (used with object)

, syn·co·pat·ed, syn·co·pat·ing.

1. Music.
   1. to place (the accents) on beats that are normally unaccented.
   2. to treat (a passage, piece, etc.) in this way.
2. Grammar. to contract (a word) by omitting one or more sounds from the middle, as in reducing Gloucester to Gloster.

syncopate

/ ˈsɪŋkəˌpeɪt /

verb

1. music to modify or treat (a beat, rhythm, note, etc) by syncopation
2. to shorten (a word) by omitting sounds or letters from the middle

Derived Forms

• ˈsyncoˌpator, noun

Other Words From

• synco·pator noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of syncopate¹

First recorded in 1600–10; Medieval Latin syncopātus (past participle of syncopāre “to shorten by syncope”); syncope, -ate ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of syncopate¹

C17: from Medieval Latin syncopāre to omit a letter or syllable, from Late Latin syncopa syncope

Example Sentences

Eva Slater’s 1954 “Galaxy” insets a syncopated network of painted forms within a wooden panel, merging optical motion with material stasis.

From Los Angeles Times

The staging, which can seem cluttered and breathless in the early going, traipses through these seedy locales with a theatrical swiftness that captures the milieu that bred the syncopated rhythm of the Jazz Age.

From Los Angeles Times

Each one’s momentary glow pulses alive and fades in syncopated rhythm with the drowsy croaks of bullfrogs.

From Salon

He brought an ensemble to the elegant Appel Room theater, overlaying syncopated backbeats, heralding horn lines and tapestries of Rhodes and distorted guitar.

From New York Times

We are apparently at that point in fascist development where they reject syncopated rhythms as decadent and emasculating.

From Salon

Related Words

• abbreviate
• constrict
• cram
• restrict
• shorten
• shrink
• squeeze
• wrap