Cadence

How to spell cadence

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cadence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cadence mean?

1. nounA regular, measured rhythm or flow, especially of sound, speech, or movement.
2. nounA sequence of chords that brings a musical phrase or piece to a close.

Cadence in a sentence

• The runners settled into a steady cadence along the towpath.

• The hymn ended on a gentle cadence that resolved to the home key.

• Her speech had a calm cadence that put the whole panel at ease.

• The student learned to recognise a perfect cadence in the exam pieces.

Where does cadence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Cadence comes from the Latin verb cadere, which literally meant 'to fall', and the related noun cadentia, 'a falling'. The idea travelled into English through the Italian cadenza and Old French cadence, where it described the way a melody seems to 'fall' or come to rest at the close of a musical phrase. English borrowed it in the late 1300s, first in connection with the rhythmic fall of poetry and music, and it later widened to mean any measured, recurring rhythm, such as the beat of marching feet or the rise and fall of a speaking voice. The same cadere root underlies a surprising family of everyday words, including 'decadent' (literally falling away), 'accident' (something that befalls you) and 'cascade'. Remembering that the word is about a 'falling' rhythm helps fix the soft middle -d- and the -ence ending that adults often misspell as -ance.

How the word is built

• cad- (from Latin cadere: to fall)
• -ence (noun suffix denoting a state or quality)