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Feb 10, 2010
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oc•tave



Pronunciation: (ok'tiv, -tāv), [key]
—n.
1. Music.
a. a tone on the eighth degree from a given tone.
b. the interval encompassed by such tones.
c. the harmonic combination of such tones.
d. a series of tones, or of keys of an instrument, extending through this interval.
2. a pipe-organ stop whose pipes give tones an octave above the normal pitch of the keys used.
3. a series or group of eight.
4. Also called octet. Pros.
a. a group of eight lines of verse, esp. the first eight lines of a sonnet in the Italian form. Cf. sestet (def. 1).
b. a stanza of eight lines.
5. the eighth of a series.
6. Eccles.
a. the eighth day from a feast day, counting the feast day as the first.
b. the period of eight days beginning with a feast day.
7. one eighth of a pipe of wine.
8. Fencing.the eighth of eight defensive positions.

—adj.
pitched an octave higher.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.

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