diminished fifth
diminished fifth noun: a type of tritone in musical composition formed by narrowing a perfect fifth by one chromatic semitones. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it spans five diatonic scale degrees like a perfect fifth but narrower by a semitone. The number of diatonic degrees it spans is what distinguishes it from an augmented fourth.
Noun
diminished fifth (plural diminished fifths)
- A type of tritone in musical composition formed by narrowing a perfect fifth by one chromatic semitones. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it spans five diatonic scale degrees like a perfect fifth but narrower by a semitone. The number of diatonic degrees it spans is what distinguishes it from an augmented fourth.
- C - G is a perfect fifth, C - G♭ is a diminished fifth, and C - G# is an augmented fifth.
- Synonyms:
- flatted fifth
Synonyms of diminished fifth
Forms of diminished fifth
| plural | diminished fifths |
|---|
Questions about diminished fifth
- What does diminished fifth mean?
- Diminished fifth means a type of tritone in musical composition formed by narrowing a perfect fifth by one chromatic semitones. In twelve-tone equal temperament, it spans five diatonic scale degrees like a perfect fifth but narrower by a semitone. The number of diatonic degrees it spans is what distinguishes it from an augmented fourth.
- What part of speech is diminished fifth?
- Diminished fifth is a noun.
- What is the plural of diminished fifth?
- The plural of diminished fifth is diminished fifths.
Words near diminished fifth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: diminished fifth (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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