tempo
/ˈtɛm.pəʊ/US/ˈtɛm.poʊ/
tempo noun: a frequency or rate.
Noun (1)
tempo (plural tempos or tempi)
- A frequency or rate.
- 10 calls per hour isn't a bad start, but we'll need to up the tempo if we want to reach our target of selling insurance policies.
- A move which is part of one's own plan or strategy and forces, e.g. by means of a check or attacking a piece, the opponent to make a move which is not bad but of no use (the player gains a tempo, the opponent loses a tempo), or equivalently a player achieves the same result in fewer moves by one approach rather than another.
- The timing advantage of being on lead, thus being first to initiate a strategy to develop tricks for one's side.
- The timing of a particular event – earlier or later than in an alternative situation.
- the tempo effect in fertility measurements
- The number of beats per minute in a piece of music; also, an indicative term denoting approximate rate of speed in written music (examples: allegro, andante)
- The conductor asked the orchestra to increase the tempo.
- The song has a slow tempo that makes it relaxing.
- The steady pace set by the frontmost riders.
- A small truck or cargo van with three or four wheels, commonly used for commercial transport and deliveries (particularly in Asian and African countries).
- From the back door of a tempo with his too-strong hands he lifted a woman wearing red clothes, like a precious jewel wrapped in gold embroidered cloth.2025, Banu Mushtaq, “Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!”, in Deepa Bhasthi, transl., Heart Lamp, And Other Stories, page 208
- A rapid rate of play by the offense resulting from reducing the amount of time which elapses after one play ends and the next starts.
Noun (2)
tempo (plural tempos)
Noun (3) capitalized: Tempo
Tempo (plural Tempos or Tempoes)
- A type of car shelter, a temporary kit-built prefabricated steel-framed high tunnel peaked hoop house with an impermeable translucent plastic fabric cover, and flap doors.
Proper noun capitalized: Tempo
Tempo
- A female given name.
tempo meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
tempo in Hindi
- music: number of beats per minute
- लय lay
tempo in Tamil
- music: number of beats per minute
- தாப்பு tāppu
tempo in Urdu
- لے, رفتار
tempo in Telugu
- టెంపో
More languagesFewer languages
- tempo in Malayalam
- താളം, താലം, താളക്രമം, സ്വരാവരോഹം
- tempo in Kannada
- ಉರುಬು
- tempo in Punjabi
- ਟੈਂਪੋ, ਟੈਂਪੂ, ਟੈਮ੍ਪੋ
- tempo in Gujarati
- ટેમ્પો ṭempo
- tempo in Malay
- tempo
- tempo in Indonesian
- tempo
- tempo in Thai
- เทมโป tem-bpoo
- tempo in Vietnamese
- nhịp độ
Examples of tempo in a sentence
- With a comfortable lead, the football team slowed down the tempo of the game.
- Which tempo do you want, largo or larghetto?
- Which are played at such high tempos yet are so precise at the same time.
Forms of tempo
| plural | tempos |
|---|---|
| plural | tempi |
| plural | Tempos |
| plural | Tempoes |
| alternative form | tempo |
Origin of tempo
Borrowed from Italian tempo, from Latin tempus (“time”). Doublet of tense. (truck or cargo van): A genericized trademark, originally associated with the manufacturer Vidal & Sohn Tempo-Werke GmbH.
Clipping of temporary.
Genericization of the trademark Tempo. From the name of a popular manufacturer of such structures. Clipping of temporary.
Words formed from tempo
Phrases with tempo
Questions about tempo
- What does tempo mean?
- Tempo means a frequency or rate.
- What is tempo in Hindi?
- Tempo in Hindi is लय (lay). See Tempo meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tempo?
- Tempo can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tempo?
- Tempo is pronounced /ˈtɛm.pəʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tempo?
- The plural of tempo is tempos.
Words near tempo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tempo (page history and authors); Tempo (page history and authors); tempo (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tempo (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tempo (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); tempo (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tempo (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ટેમ્પો (Gujarati) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tempo.wav.
Cite this entry: “tempo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tempo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.