syncopation

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

noun

1. Music. a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats.
2. something, as a rhythm or a passage of music, that is syncopated. syncopated.
3. Also called counterpoint, 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.
4. Grammar. syncope.

syncopation

/ ˌsɪŋkəˈpeɪʃən /

noun

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

Other Words From

• nonsyn·co·pation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of syncopation¹

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

Example Sentences

“Training Season,” her demand for a partner who already knows “how to love me right,” has tickling guitar syncopations and girl-group harmonies popping out of nowhere.

From New York Times

It includes “On Lamp,” an undulating, not-quite-ambient piece that threads a wandering, slow-motion melody through a stereo dialogue of acoustic guitars and subdued tom-tom syncopations, like a glimpse of a distant caravan.

From New York Times

They merge Frank Stella’s hard-edged syncopation with Southern California’s Finish Fetish movement, resulting in lustrous surfaces with an electric hum and smooth cast, like Everlasting Gobstoppers dipped in car paint.

From New York Times

And then there is the rush created by Wainaina’s language, which moves to its own syncopation.

From New York Times

An effective mix of louche syncopation, unabashed romanticism and biting sarcasm long set Kander and Ebb apart on Broadway, from “Cabaret” to “Chicago” to their brilliant earlier collaboration with Stroman, “The Scottsboro Boys.”

From New York Times