Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or using only five tones, usually the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth tones of a diatonic scale.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In music, consisting of five tones; especially, pertaining to a pentatonic scale (which see, under scale).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective music Based on five tones.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to a pentatonic scale

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pentatonic.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "She stood there again now. For a tone memory like his, there was no difference between past and present. That's what was painful - he could never turn off the sound of loss. It was tragic, but it was also wonderfully sentimental; the day he died it would be just as bad as now, or worse.

    Above her tone he heard a pentatonic scale. Exotic, like drums from a tropical jungle, and also deep breathing, like a blacksmith's bellows in the Friland Museum in Århus."

    bosom - "He took the envelope from a large congratulations card from the dressing table, and on the back wrote with a lipstick what she had demanded. He handed the envelope to the woman.

    'In the movies,' he said, 'women put perfumed notes like that into their bosom. Could I help you do that?'"

    - 'The Quiet Girl', Peter Høeg.

    March 18, 2008

  • Another usage note on hexatonic.

    July 31, 2008