diapason

American  

[dahy-uh-pey-zuhn, -suhn] / ˌdaɪ əˈpeɪ zən, -sən /

noun

Music.

1. a full, rich outpouring of melodious sound.

2. the compass of a voice or instrument.

3. a fixed standard of pitch.

4. either of two principal timbres or stops of a pipe organ, one of full, majestic tone open diapason and the other of strong, flutelike tone stopped diapason.

5. any of several other organ stops.

6. a tuning fork.

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diapason British  

/ -ˈsɒn-, -ˈpeɪsən, ˌdaɪəpeɪˈzɒnɪk, ˌdaɪəˈpeɪzən /

noun

1. either of two stops ( open and stopped diapason ) usually found throughout the compass of a pipe organ that give it its characteristic tone colour

2. the compass of an instrument or voice

3. 1. a standard pitch used for tuning, esp the now largely obsolete one of A above middle C = 435 hertz, known as diapason normal ( French ( djapazɔ̃ nɔrmal )

   2. a tuning fork or pitch pipe

4. (in classical Greece) an octave

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Other Word Forms

• diapasonal adjective
• subdiapason noun
• subdiapasonal adjective

Etymology

Origin of diapason

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English diapasoun, dyapason, from Latin diapāsōn “the whole octave,” from Greek dià pāsôn (chordôn) “through all (the notes),” short for hē dià pāsôn chordôn symphōnía “the concord through all the notes of the scale”

Example Sentences

Feldman was fascinated by the organ's principal pipes that produce the thickly textured diapason sounds that are pure organ, as opposed to the myriad other pipes with, say, flute-like or brass-like characters.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2016

Rosamund Johnson was next, arranger of The Book of American Negro Spirituals, composer on the African five-tone scale, whose voice is like a diapason.

From Time Magazine Archive

Once when he was singing in John D. Rockefeller Sr.'s Baptist Church his thunderous diapason is said to have made the old tycoon whisper to a retainer: "Did you bring an umbrella?"

From Time Magazine Archive

For 45 minutes he spoke, sometimes allowing his voice to swell in a sonorous diapason, sometimes letting it sink low as he leaned forward confidentially over the desk.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is the diapason of a new literature produced by the war.

From Revisiting the Earth by Hill, James Langdon

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