ca·dence  (kād ns)
Share:
n. pl. ca·denc·es 1. Balanced, rhythmic flow, as of poetry or oratory. 2. a. The measure or beat of movement, as in dancing or marching. b. A rhythmic chant, often in call-and-response form, used by soldiers to keep in step when marching or running. 3. a. A falling inflection of the voice, as at the end of a sentence. b. General inflection or modulation of the voice. 4. Music A progression of chords moving to a harmonic close, point of rest, or sense of resolution.
[Middle English, from Old French *cadence, from Old Italian cadenza, from Vulgar Latin *cadentia, a falling, from Latin cadēns, cadent-, present participle of cadere, to fall; see kad- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
cadenced adj. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
The American Heritage Dictionary Blog
This website is best viewed in Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. Some characters in pronunciations and etymologies cannot be displayed properly in Internet Explorer.