syncopation
noun
- rhythms which are in some way unexpected, used to convey an off-beat feel to music
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.
- The contraction of a word by means of loss or omission of sounds or syllables in the middle thereof.
- 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.