time signature

noun

: a sign used in music to indicate meter and usually written as a fraction with the bottom number indicating the kind of note used as a unit of time and the top number indicating the number of units in each measure

Examples of time signature in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Before the fretting reaches a head, one of Barbieri’s backing oscillators creeps forward into a nimble major-key ostinato that sounds like it was lifted from a Lorenzo Senni daydream, transforming a slight shift in timbre and time signature into a crescendo of new hope. —Hattie Lindert, Pitchfork, 2 Mar. 2026

But when the orchestra encounters a complex jazz composition with conflicting time signatures, dissonant harmonies or sections requiring improvisation, the musicians need greater coordination. —Ricky J. Sethi, The Conversation, 26 Jan. 2026

By pairing atomic and nuclear clocks side by side, physicists can monitor tiny variations in their time signatures that could betray dark matter’s presence. —New Atlas, 16 Sep. 2025

This time signature was also chosen because hard-copy books are scanned at this same rate when digitized—eight pages per second is the rate scanned by the BGS-Auto at the University of Tokyo. —Jan Tumlir, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1841, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

time signature

noun

: a sign used to indicate musical meter and usually written with one number above another with the bottom number indicating the kind of note used as a unit of time and the top number indicating the number of these units in each measure