Cadence1. (n.) Rhythmical flow of language, music or marching; as, a quarterback's cadence in calling signals.
2. (n.) The act or state of declining or sinking.
3. (n.) A fall of the voice in reading or speaking, especially at the end of a sentence.
4. (n.) A rhythmical modulation of the voice or of any sound; as, music of bells in cadence sweet.
5. (n.) See Cadency.
6. (n.) Harmony and proportion in motions, as of a well-managed horse.
7. (n.) A uniform time and place in marching.
8. (n.) The close or fall of a strain; the point of rest, commonly reached by the immediate succession of the tonic to the dominant chord.
9. (n.) A cadenza, or closing embellishment; a pause before the end of a strain, which the performer may fill with a flight of fancy.
10. (v. t.) To regulate by musical measure.
Thesaurus Entries
Alexandrine, accent, accentuation, acciaccatura, amphibrach, amphimacer, anacrusis, anapest, antispast, appoggiatura, arabesque, arsis, authentic cadence, bacchius, bass passage, beat, bourdon, bridge, burden, cadency, cadenza, caesura, catalexis, catenary, chloriamb, chloriambus, chorus, coda, colon, coloratura, counterpoint, cretic, dactyl, dactylic hexameter, decline, decurrence, development, diaeresis, dimeter, dipody, division, dochmiac, droop, elegiac, elegiac couplet, elegiac pentameter, embellishment, emphasis, epitrite, exposition, false cadence, feminine caesura, figure, fioritura, flight, flourish, folderol, foot, grace, grace note, half cadence, harmonic close, heptameter, heptapody, heroic couplet, hexameter, hexapody, iamb, iambic, iambic pentameter, ictus, imperfect cadence, incidental, incidental note, interlude, intermezzo, introductory phrase, ionic, jingle, lapse, level of stress, lilt, long mordent, lowering, masculine caesura, measure, meter, metrical accent, metrical foot, metrical group, metrical unit, metrics, metron, mixed cadence, molossus, mora, mordent, movement, musical phrase, musical sentence, numbers, ornament, paeon, part, passage, pentameter, pentapody, period, phrase, plagal cadence, pralltriller, primary stress, proceleusmatic, prosodics, prosody, pulse, pyrrhic, quantity, refrain, resolution, response, rhythm, rhythmic pattern, rhythmical stress, ritornello, roulade, run, sag, secondary stress, section, single mordent, sinkage, slump, spondee, sprung rhythm, stanza, statement, strain, stress, stress accent, stress pattern, submergence, subsidence, swag, swing, syzygy, tailpiece, tempo, tertiary stress, tetrameter, tetrapody, tetraseme, thesis, tribrach, trimeter, tripody, triseme, trochee, turn, tutti, tutti passage, variation, verse, weak stress