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syncopation

noun

  1. rhythms which are in some way unexpected, used to convey an off-beat feel to music
L328949 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˌsɪŋ.kəˈpeɪ.ʃən/

noun

Etymology: From syncopate + -ion. The phonological sense was first attested in English in the 1530's, the musical sense in the 1590's.

  1. The contraction of a word by means of loss or omission of sounds or syllables in the middle thereof.
  2. The quality of a rhythm being somehow unexpected, in that it deviates from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beats in a meter.