Definition of CADENCED (original) (raw)
1
a
: the beat, time, or measure of rhythmical motion or activity
The drill sergeant counted cadence.
the steady cadence of the drums
b
: a rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds in language
the grand cadence of his poetry
c
: a regular and repeated pattern of activity
In addition to our weekly cadence, we take a step back once a quarter to think about our platform a little more strategically.—
David Vandegrift
To meet its cadence of a launch every other week, SpaceX must build at least two of these each month.—Eric Berger
Then in the evening, it's off to the boxing gym or a sparring session for two to three more hours. In recent years, she's kept a cadence of two to four fights annually, her last being a loss for the WBC light middleweight world title in Poland in September.—Deanna Cioppa
2
a
: a falling inflection of the voice
b
: a concluding and usually falling strain
specifically : a musical chord sequence moving to a harmonic close or point of rest and giving the sense of harmonic completion
3
: the modulated and rhythmic recurrence of a sound especially in nature
Did you know?
A cadence is a rhythm, or a flow of words or music, in a sequence that is regular (or steady as it were). But lest we be mistaken, cadence also lends its meaning to the sounds of Mother Nature (such as birdsong) to be sure. Cadence comes from Middle English borrowed from Medieval Latin’s own cadentia, a lovely word that means “rhythm in verse.” (You may also recognize a cadence cousin, sweet cadenza, as a word that is familiar in the opera universe.) And from there our cadence traces just a little further backward to the Latin verb cadere “to sound rhythmically, to fall.” Praise the rising and the falling of the lilting in our language, whether singing songs or rhyming or opining on it all.
Did you know?
Cadence can refer to any rhythmic sequence of words or sound, but in military contexts, the word has a particular meaning, referring to the rhythmic chants sung by soldiers in marching formation.
These chants can often help keep marchers in line with the rhythm of the march:
Early each morning we were assembled for drill, marching to the cadence of a full-throated Marine sergeant who had little use for us; what he knew for sure about us was that we would be of little value in any hand-to-hand fight.
Lewis Thomas, in Authors at Sea, 1997
Synonyms
Examples of cadence in a Sentence
the steady cadence of the drums Oars moved back and forth in smooth cadence. He speaks with a soft Southern cadence.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Though the Adams administration has won hundreds of millions of federal infrastructure dollars, being able to plan to a regular cadence — rather than waiting for post-disaster FEMA funds or the right political winds to blow — would help the pace of our work exponentially. —Meera Joshi, New York Daily News, 9 Feb. 2025 Unlike so much contemporary poetry, his poems would seem to welcome you in, with an easy cadence and familiar references that seem to amuse. —Corey Seymour, Vogue, 6 Feb. 2025 That, in itself, is a testament to the ubiquity of spaceflight today, and the leaps the industry has taken for such a cadence to become possible. —Josh Dinner, Space.com, 4 Feb. 2025 There’s an actionable item within the note — but there is also a specific cadence to that monologue. —Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 27 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for cadence 
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, "rhythm of prose or verse, rhetorical periods," borrowed from Medieval Latin cadentia "rhythm in verse," noun derivative (formally feminine singular from neuter plural) of Latin cadent-, cadens, present participle of cadere "to fall, sound rhythmically, end, terminate (of words or clauses)" — more at chance entry 1
Note: Since at least the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1888), this word has been attributed to Italian, either directly or through French. However, attestations of French cadence and Italian cadenza are significantly later than the first occurrences of cadence in Middle English (ca. 1390) and early Scots (ca. 1420). (The word also occurs in Chaucer's House of Fame, composed ca. 1380 and attested earliest in a manuscript of ca. 1450.) In Medieval Latin cadentia appears in the approximate sense "verse rhythm" (pedum cadentia) in John of Garland's Parisiana poetria (composed ca. 1234).
First Known Use
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1b
Time Traveler
The first known use of cadence was in the 14th century
Dictionary Entries Near cadence
Cite this Entry
“Cadence.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cadence. Accessed 12 Feb. 2025.
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Last Updated: 12 Feb 2025 - Updated example sentences
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