Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A pattern of drumbeats characterized by four basic beats and alternating left-handed and right-handed strokes on the successive primary beats.
Wiktionary
- n. music A percussive exercise (one of 26 drum rudiments) which involves playing four even strokes in the order ‘right left right right’ or ‘left right left left’
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The sound of a drum (especially a snare drum) beaten rapidly and continuously.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the sound of a drum (especially a snare drum) beaten rapidly and continuously
Etymologies
- Imitative. (Wiktionary)
- Probably imitative. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The paradiddle is another important snare drum rudiment that will help one get a handle on the sticks.”
“I never sat in a room and tried to copy records or practice a paradiddle.”
“Or if one starts with the left hand the paradiddle looks like this:”
“I am very familiar with the paradiddle after having taught many beginning percussionsists how to play one!”
“The basic paradiddle is played by the hands with the following repeating pattern:”
“ I'm fine with left-handed flam paradiddle-diddles because I'm right-handed, but Mrs. Karash expects me to alternate left and right, and to accelerando, until I'm playing flam paradiddle-diddles fast like syncopated rolls.”
“ Finally, I get the flam paradiddle-diddles going and I begin my accelerando.”
“ I take a deep breath and try again, spitting out a right-handed flam paradiddle-diddle, then a sound from the drum like wiping out on my bicycle, and my sticks come to rest with a buzz.”
“ She uses fat marching sticks, her hands arthritic, weightless flam paradiddle-diddles tossed off left and right, her accelerando poised and controlled.”
“I take a deep breath and try again, spitting out a right-handed flam paradiddle-diddle, then a sound from the drum like wiping out on my bicycle, and my sticks come to rest with a buzz.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paradiddle’.
-
Silly-sounding words
Serious words that sound silly when you say them
philosophunculist, argy-bargy, Labradoodle, shittah, shittim, floccinaucinihili..., succedaneum, honorificabilitud..., fag-ma-fuff, buffarilla, yazzihamper, mammothrept and 140 more...
-
MUSIC - ALL TERMS
With focus on non-classical styles, but not excluding terms of the latter.
banjo, accompaniment, acoustic bass, bass guitar, bass clef, ground, brass, cornet, Mute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, arrangement and 866 more...
-
the beat & the break
words relating to rhythm
syncope, ascensional, sonant, syncopate, assonance, caesura, prosody, modulation, cadence, rhythm, interval, clitter and 34 more...
-
Dirty Words?
flange, shunt, dictum, angina, cunctator, mastication, spelunker, shiitake, rimshot, arsole, forebulge, fecund and 34 more...
-
Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 173 more...
-
thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
-
patterns
ergodic, stochastic, stereopsis, echolocation, holocation, broker, map, intarsia, encipher, ocellus, muslin, mandelbrot set and 159 more...
-
roseandivy's list
mooncalf, wonted, gibbet, artless, noontide, blithe, glitterati, vorpal, soporific, moxie, pilfer, betwixt and between and 263 more...
-
Wordie/Wordnik Curio Cabinet
Oddments culled from my "main" lists that belong in a display cabinet of their own, plus sundry other curiosities. :-)
zeugma, ziggurat, xiphoid, xeric, whizgigging, whangdoodle, viviparous, vivific, vinolent, verjuice, vellicate, velleity and 1193 more...
-
5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
-
thricedotted's Words
schadenfreude, vanquish, calumny, obsequious, rhapsody, expostulate, promontory, bordello, quintessence, catharsis, recapitulation, myriad and 937 more...
-
Words Covered in Faery Dust (P)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
pagan, page, pageant, pageboy, pagoda, paisley, paladin, palfrey, paling, pampas grass, pan, panoply and 194 more...
-
Fife and Drum Words
For all those fifers and drummers out there... This one's for you.
Related lists are here and here.drum, fife, sticks, ears, rope-tensioned, snare, snare head, batter head, shell, rim, sling, paradiddle and 72 more...
-
Papa
P
preternatural, paean, pastiche, picaresque, proclivity, plenilune, phlox, praxis, phoneme, profligate, periphrastic, panspermia and 67 more...
-
It's the sound
Words whose sound I find particularly pleasing.
spoon, flummery, squeegee, sennight, traipse, yore, scrumptious, callithump, ribbit, brummagem, whimsical, whimsical and 9 more...
-
Words With Good Mouth-Feel
Every word exists as a mouthful of air. Some mouthfuls feel better than others, and I list those words.
chortle, huffalump, calamitous, tarradiddle, purfle, boojum, whangdoodle, transfinite, vorpal, simony, scholia, perfidious and 17 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for paradiddle.

arby Interesting c_b! Sep 27, 2007
chained_bear One of the basic patterns (rudiments) of drumming, consisting of four even strokes played in the order ‘left right left left’ or ‘right left right right’.
So called (I am told) because you can think "pa-ra-did-dle" as you're learning to play one. Feb 13, 2007