eighth note

noun

: a musical note with the time value of ⅛ of a whole note see note illustration

Examples of eighth note in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The listening second graders, most of whom wore uniforms (light-blue polo shirts, dark-blue pants and skirts) were sitting on a rug decorated with eighth notes, piano keys, and a second-grader-size treble clef. — Adam Iscoe, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026

Michele wore a pin in the shape of the AgroPlay logo, an eighth note shaped like a leaf. — Carolina Abbott Galvão, The Dial, 6 Jan. 2026

Benson starts playing it with these staccato eighth notes high up on the piano. — Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 9 June 2025

So fewer 16th notes, fewer eighth notes, and fewer 32nd notes — a lot of, like, whole notes and quarter notes just to let that thing sing. — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 31 Mar. 2025

Mean Girls’ title graphic features a tiny eighth note inside the a as the lone hint at the remake’s Broadway origins. — Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 27 Nov. 2024

For the coda, Shostakovich and Mravinsky apparently settled on a metronome marking of eighth note = 184 or 188. — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2024

There is, however, an eighth note – do. — Rabbi Avi Weiss, sun-sentinel.com, 5 Apr. 2021

For Armstrong, each eighth note did not need to have the same weight or duration on every occasion that an eighth note appeared. — Popular Science, 30 May 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1839, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for eighth note

• afloat
• azote
• banknote
• bareboat
• benzoate
• connote
• cutthroat
• demote
• denote
• devote
• endnote
• footnote

Kids Definition

eighth note

noun

: a musical note equal in time to ⅛ of a whole note