Standard Lemma guide

semibreve

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

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.

  • /ˈsɛmɪbɹiːv/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A musical note four beats long in 4/4 time; a whole note (US)

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a musical note having the longest time value (equal to four beats in common time)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: whole note

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: note, musical note, tone

History

Etymology

From Italian semibreve, ultimately from Latin semi- (“half”) and Latin brevis (“short”).

Across languages

Translations

28 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Azerbaijani: bütöv not — whole note
  • Chinese Cantonese: 全音符 (cyun4 jam1 fu4) — whole note
  • Chinese Mandarin: 全音符 (quányīnfú) — whole note
  • Dutch: hele noot — whole note
  • Esperanto: karolo — whole note
  • Finnish: kokonuotti — whole note
  • French: ronde — whole note
  • Galician: redonda — whole note
  • German: ganze Note — whole note
  • Greek: ολόκληρο (olókliro) — whole note
  • Hindi: एकमात्रिक (ekmātrik) — whole note
  • Hungarian: egész — whole note
  • Icelandic: heilnóta — whole note
  • Irish: lán-nóta — whole note
  • Italian: semibreve — whole note
  • Japanese: 全音符 (zen’onpu) — whole note
  • Korean: 온음표 (oneumpyo) — whole note
  • Malay: semibrif — whole note
  • Māori: orowhā — whole note
  • Polish: cała nuta — whole note
  • Portuguese: semibreve — whole note
  • Russian: це́лая но́та (célaja nóta) — whole note
  • Scottish Gaelic: punc cruinn — whole note
  • Slovene: polovinka — whole note
  • Spanish: semibreve — whole note
  • Spanish: redonda — whole note
  • Swedish: helnot — whole note
  • Vietnamese: nốt tròn — whole note