syncope
Syllables: syn·co·peUK/ˈsɪŋ.kə.pi/
syncope noun: the elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable.
Noun
syncope (countable and uncountable, plural syncopes)
- The elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable.
- […]; on the contrary, all syllables subject in the same way to elision, apocope, syncope, and slurring must have the same degree of stress (i.e. they must be alike unaccented) whether preceded by short or by long root-syllables.1910, Jakob Schipper, A History of English Versification
- Antonyms:
- epenthesis
- A loss of consciousness when fainting.
- Sometimes, without any apparent cause, I sank, little by little, into a condition of semi-syncope, or half swoon; and, in this condition, without pain, without ability to stir, or, strictly speaking, to think, but with a dull lethargic consciousness of life and of the presence of those who...1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial
- Schneider, the father of rhinology, mentions a woman in whom the odor of orange-flowers produced syncope.1896, George M. Gould, Walter Lytle Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
- Synonyms:
- swoon, faint, fainting, lipothymia
- A missed beat or off-beat stress in music resulting in syncopation.
- She was a volatile creature, full of mischievous surprise: at their first music practice, after playing over some hymns on the pipe-organ, she burst into jazz, filling the quiet grove with the clamorous syncope of Paddy-Paws, a favourite song that summer.1922, Christopher Morley, Where the Blue Begins
syncope meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Arabic and Malay
syncope in Tamil
- இதயத்துடுப்பு நின்று உண்டாகும் மயக்கம், மயக்கம், மயக்க நிலை, மூர்ச்சை, உயிர்கெடல்
syncope in Kannada
- ಉಲಿಕಳೆತ
syncope in Arabic
- loss of consciousness
- إِغْمَاء ʔiḡmāʔ
syncope in Malay
- absence of a sound
- lenyap bunyi, sinkope
More languagesFewer languages
- syncope in Persian
- سنکوپ sankup, غش ġaš
- syncope in Vietnamese
- rụng âm
Synonyms of syncope
Antonyms
Forms of syncope
| plural | syncopes |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | syncopé |
Origin of syncope
Learned borrowing from Late Latin syncopē, from Ancient Greek συγκοπή (sunkopḗ), from συγκόπτω (sunkóptō, “cut up”) + -η (-ē, nominalization suffix), from σύν (sún, “beside, with”) + κόπτω (kóptō, “strike, cut off”). Partly continues the (near-)doublets syncopis and sincopin, both from the Old French sincopin (“faintness”) (itself from Late Latin accusative syncopen), with the pathological meaning "a loss of consciousness accompanied by a weak pulse", attested from the fifteenth century. Usage in the form syncope, with the phonological meaning "contraction of a word by omission of middle sounds or letters" attested from the 1520s. Syncopis and sincopin were "re-Latinized" to the form syncope in English in the sixteenth century. The musical usage first occurs after the 1660s, following the musical usage of syncopation and syncopate.
Words formed from syncope
Questions about syncope
- What does syncope mean?
- Syncope means the elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable.
- What is syncope in Tamil?
- Syncope in Tamil is இதயத்துடுப்பு நின்று உண்டாகும் மயக்கம், மயக்கம், மயக்க நிலை. See Syncope meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is syncope?
- Syncope is a noun.
- How do you pronounce syncope?
- Syncope is pronounced /ˈsɪŋ.kə.pi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of syncope?
- The plural of syncope is syncopes.
Words near syncope in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: syncope (page history and authors); syncope (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); syncope (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-syncope.ogg.
Cite this entry: “syncope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/syncope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.