cadence

cadence
    n 1: (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse [syn:
         {meter}, {metre}, {measure}, {beat}, {cadence}]
    2: the close of a musical section
    3: a recurrent rhythmical series [syn: {cadence}, {cadency}]
    

Cadence \Ca"dence\, v. t.
   To regulate by musical measure.
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         These parting numbers, cadenced by my grief. --Philips.
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Cadence \Ca"dence\, n. [OE. cadence, cadens, LL. cadentia a
   falling, fr. L. cadere to fall; cf. F. cadence, It. cadenza.
   See {Chance}.]
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   1. The act or state of declining or sinking. [Obs.]
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            Now was the sun in western cadence low. --Milton.
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   2. A fall of the voice in reading or speaking, especially at
      the end of a sentence.
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   3. A rhythmical modulation of the voice or of any sound; as,
      music of bells in cadence sweet.
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            Blustering winds, which all night long
            Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull
            Seafaring men o'erwatched.            --Milton.
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            The accents . . . were in passion's tenderest
            cadence.                              --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
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   4. Rhythmical flow of language, in prose or verse.
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            Golden cadence of poesy.              --Shak.
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            If in any composition much attention was paid to the
            flow of the rhythm, it was said (at least in the
            14th and 15th centuries) to be "prosed in faire
            cadence."                             --Dr. Guest.
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   5. (Her.) See {Cadency}.
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   6. (Man.) Harmony and proportion in motions, as of a
      well-managed horse.
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   7. (Mil.) A uniform time and place in marching.
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   8. (Mus.)
      (a) The close or fall of a strain; the point of rest,
          commonly reached by the immediate succession of the
          tonic to the dominant chord.
      (b) A cadenza, or closing embellishment; a pause before
          the end of a strain, which the performer may fill with
          a flight of fancy.
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   {Imperfect cadence}. (Mus.) See under {Imperfect}.
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164 Moby Thesaurus words for "cadence":
      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