metronome

UK/ˈmɛt.ɹəˌnəʊm/US/ˈmɛt.ɹəˌnoʊm/

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,898 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: metronomes

A metronome is a device that ticks a steady beat to practise to. Set the metronome, play with a metronome, a metronome marking.

The number on a score is beats per minute, and practising slowly with one is the single most reliable way to learn a difficult passage. Musicians hate it and use it anyway, because it exposes exactly where the playing rushes.

Definitions of metronome

1nounmetronomeA device that ticks a steady beat to practise to.B2+
“She set the metronome to a slow beat and practised the scale until it was even.”

metronome is a device.

Where it comes from

Coined from Greek metron, a measure, plus nomos, a rule or law.

Proto-Indo-European
*meh₁-
Ancient Greek
μέτρον — measure
English, today
metronome

Built from

νόμος · Ancient Greek — regulation, law

Coined in English from Ancient Greek μέτρον (“measure”) + νόμος (“regulation, law”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

metronome in the wild

Composers and conductors often use numerical metronome markings to communicate their preferred tempos to musicians preparing for a performance.
Metronome
A type of metronome was among the inventions of the Andalusian polymath Abbas ibn Firnas.
Metronome
Johann Nepomuk Maelzel was a German inventor, engineer, and showman, best known for reverse engineering the metronome that Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel invented and mass producing it.
Johann Nepomuk Maelzel
Stadlen spent many years trying to track down Beethoven's metronome, an invention which Beethoven had commissioned.
Peter Stadlen

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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