adj.
- Music. Pitched higher or lower than the correct notes of a melody.
- Being out of accord with what is considered normal or appropriate: a high-flown, off-key speech by a newcomer.
| Dictionary: off-key |
| Antonyms: off-key |
Definition: not harmonious
Antonyms: concordant, harmonious, on-key
| WordNet: off-key |
The adjective has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
inaccurate in pitch
Synonyms: false, sour
| Wikipedia: Off-key |
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| Look up off-key in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Off-key is a term often used to denote musical content that is not at the expected frequency or pitch period, either with respect to some absolute reference frequency, or in a ratiometric sense (i.e. through removal of exactly one degree of freedom, such as the frequency of a keynote), or pitch intervals not well-defined in the ratio of small whole numbers.
The term may also refer to a person or situation being out of step with what is considered normal or appropriate.
The opposite of off-key is on-key, which suggests that there is a well defined keynote, or reference pitch. This does not necessarily have to be an absolute pitch but rather one that is relative for at least the duration of a song. A song is usually in a certain key, which is usually the note that the song ends on, and is the base frequency around which it resolves to at the end.
The base-frequency is usually called the harmonic or key center. Being on-key presumes that there is a key center frequency around which some portion of notes have well defined intervals to.
Examples include the words "Thought He Was a Goner" in the song "And the Cat Came Back" and the words "Yum Yum" in the children's song "Five Green and Speckled Frogs."
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Off-key |
Dansk (Danish)
adj. - falsk
adv. - falskt
Nederlands (Dutch)
vals, onzuiver
Français (French)
adj. - (Mus) faux
adv. - (Mus) faux
Deutsch (German)
adj. - falsch, verstimmt
adv. - falsch
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - παράφωνος, φάλτσος
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - fora do tom
Español (Spanish)
adj. - desafinado
adv. - desafinadamente
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - falsk, som inte stämmer
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
走调的, 不和谐的, 不和谐地
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 走調的, 不和諧的
adv. - 不和諧地
한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 음정에서 벗어나는, 정상이 아닌
adv. - 비정상적으로
العربيه (Arabic)
(صفه) غير ملائم
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - מזייף, משונה, לא יאה, לא הוגן, לא מכוון
adv. - מזייף, משונה, לא יאה, לא הוגן, לא-מתאים
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Copyrights:
![]() | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Antonyms. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Off-key". Read more | |
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