Word.ws English Dictionary

deceptive cadence

deceptive cadence noun: a falling cadence in which the ear expects a dominant chord to resolve to the tonic, but it resolves to something else (usually a submediant chord) instead.

Noun

deceptive cadence (plural deceptive cadences)

  1. (US) a falling cadence in which the ear expects a dominant chord to resolve to the tonic, but it resolves to something else (usually a submediant chord) instead.
    Synonyms:
    interrupted cadence

Synonyms of deceptive cadence

  • interrupted cadence

Forms of deceptive cadence

pluraldeceptive cadences

Questions about deceptive cadence

What does deceptive cadence mean?
Deceptive cadence means a falling cadence in which the ear expects a dominant chord to resolve to the tonic, but it resolves to something else (usually a submediant chord) instead.
What part of speech is deceptive cadence?
Deceptive cadence is a noun.
What is the plural of deceptive cadence?
The plural of deceptive cadence is deceptive cadences.

Words near deceptive cadence in the dictionary

  1. deceptious
  2. deceptiously
  3. deceptitious
  4. deceptive
  5. deceptive advertising
  6. deceptive cadence
  7. deceptive cadences
  8. deceptively
  9. deceptively misdescriptive
  10. deceptiveness
  11. deceptivities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deceptive cadence (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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