syncopated

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

adjective

1. marked by syncopation:

   syncopated rhythm.

2. cut short; abbreviated.

Other Words From

• un·synco·pated adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of syncopated¹

1655–65; < Late Latin syncopāt ( us ) ( syncopate ) + -ed ²

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