tem·po  (t ĕm p ō)
Share:
n. pl. tem·pos or tem·pi (-p ē) 1. Music The speed at which music is or ought to be played, often indicated on written compositions by a descriptive or metronomic direction to the performer. 2. A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace: "the tempo and the feeling of modern life" (Robert L. Heilbroner).
[Italian, from Latin tempus, time.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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.