noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
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
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1
noun
Meaning 1
A perfect cadence characteristic of English Renaissance music, involving a flattened seventh note played against the dominant chord (containing a regular raised seventh). Conventionally, the flattened seventh is played as part of a suspension on the penultimate beat, before resolving downwards to the sixth and then fifth of the final chord, while the raised seventh is held before resolving upward to the first; however, more complex variations are also possible.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
Examples
A typical English cadence in C major, involving a B♭ that resolves to A followed by G, suspended on the third beat against a B♮ that resolves to C:
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A more complex example in G major, from the end of William Byrd’s Browning à 5
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From English + cadence, coined due to its popularity with composers of the English Renaissance of the late 15th to the early 17th centuries.
Across languages
Translations
1 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Finnish:
englantilainen kadenssi
— perfect cadence characteristic of English Renaissance music
