semitone

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   music: the smallest interval in the standard chromatic scale of Western music, equal to half a whole tone

   The melody rises by a semitone from C to C sharp.

2. 2
   noun

   music: either of the unequal half-tone intervals used in some tuning systems

   The theorist distinguished the smaller diatonic semitone from the chromatic semitone.

Formed from semi-, 'half,' + tone. The name reflects the division of a whole tone into two intervals, although the two semitones need not be equal in every historical tuning system.

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