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Glite Dictionary
🎼 With set rhythm 📏 Able to measure
mensurable

mensurable

9.9
Music with notes that have fixed time values
  • adjective
  • /ˈmɛnʒərəbəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : mensurable
  • The piece is mensurable and follows a strict beat.

Examples

  • The transition from chant to mensurable music marked a significant change in notation.

  • Scholars studied the origins of mensurable rhythms in medieval manuscripts.

  • The performance featured a mensurable style typical of 14th-century composers.

  • This rhythm is mensurable.

  • The transition from chant to mensurable music marked a significant change in notation.

  • The performance featured a mensurable style typical of 14th-century composers.

  • Scholars studied the origins of mensurable rhythms in medieval manuscripts.

Synonyms

metered
vsmensurable
  • Literature
1 4.7

Having a regular pattern of strong and weak beats in each line of a poem

describes musical duration measurable in notes not poetic meter
mensural
vsmensurable
  • Specialized
9.9

Music where each note has a fixed length, often older music

is the general musical state of having fixed measurable durations
measured
vsmensurable
  • Specialized
4.8

Music with a regular steady beat like a march

focuses on precise measurable note durations rather than general steady rhythm

Surface Forms

mensurable positive

Morphology

mensurable = measure (semi-transparent) = mensur + able

Formally 'mensur-' + '-able' yields 'able to be measured in duration'; meaning is derivable but the usage is specialized (musicological) and the stem form is Latinized, which may not be obvious to learners.

Etymology

The word mensurable in music also comes from the Latin mensura, 'measure', and was used for rhythms with fixed beats, just like the musical word meter. That's why mensurable music has regular beats you can count and measure.