adj
Meaning 1
Sad or pessimistic.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- He sounded downbeat when asked about his future plans.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
downbeat
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/daʊnˈbiːt/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -iːt
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/ˈdaʊnbiːt/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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CMU ARPABET: D AW0 N B IY1 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Cautiously optimistic.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- She carried herself with a quiet downbeat grace.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
The accented beat at the beginning of a bar (indicated by a conductor with a downward stroke).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
the first beat of a musical measure (as the conductor's arm moves downward)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: rhythm, beat, musical rhythm
History
Etymology
Earlier downbeaten, from the phrasal verb beat down
From down + beat.
Across languages
Translations
17 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: мрачен (mračen) — sad
- Bulgarian: песимистичен (pesimističen) — sad
- Dutch: droef — sad
- Dutch: pessimistisch — sad
- Finnish: synkkä — sad
- Finnish: pessimistinen — sad
- French: triste — sad
- French: pessimiste — sad
- German: pessimistisch — sad
- Turkish: karamsar — sad
- Turkish: kötümser — sad
- Esperanto: ĉefpulso — accented beat
- Finnish: alaslyönti — accented beat
- French: temps fort — accented beat
- Greek: θέση (thési) — accented beat
- Polish: akcentowana miara taktu — accented beat
- Welsh: curiad i lawr — accented beat
Real reading context