Other forms: cadences
Cadence is the rise and fall of a voice or a tune. A natural cadence, the cadence of his speech, a falling cadence.
In music a cadence is the chord sequence that closes a phrase, and the ear hears it as a full stop or a comma depending on which one is used. In cycling, cadence means pedalling rate in revolutions a minute. Note that the Latin means a falling, which is what a closing phrase does.
1nouncadenceThe rise and fall of a voice or a tune.
“I love the gentle cadence of her Irish accent.”
2nounpedallingPedalling rate in cycling.
“Cyclists try to keep a steady cadence, even when the road gets steeper.”
cadence is a rhythm.
Middle French cadence comes from Italian cadenza, from Latin cadere, to fall. Cascade and chance come from the same falling.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱh₂d-
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱad- — to fall
Proto-Italic
*kadō
Latin
*cadentia
roa-oit
cadenza — conclusion of a phrase of music
Middle French
cadence
English, today
cadence
Built from
Middle French cadence, from roa-oit cadenza (“conclusion of a phrase of music”), from Latin cadentia literally “a falling”, form of cadēns, the present participle of cadō (“to fall, to cease”). The Latin verb is inherited, via Proto-Italic kadō, from Proto-Indo-European ḱad- (“to fall”). a doublet of cadenza and chance.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA