Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Eighth \Eighth\ ([=a]tth), a. [AS. eahto[eth]a.]
Next in order after the seventh.
-
Consisting of one of eight equal divisions of a thing.
Eighth note (Mus.), the eighth part of a whole note, or semibreve; a quaver.
Wiktionary
n. (context music English) A note having one-eighth the duration of a whole note; a quaver
WordNet
n. a musical note having the time value of an eighth of a whole note [syn: quaver]
Wikipedia
thumb|180px|right|Figure 1. An eighth note with stem facing up, an eighth note with stem facing down, and an eighth rest. thumb|right|180px|Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together.
An eighth note ( American) or a quaver ( British) is a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet) and twice that of the sixteenth note (semiquaver), which amounts to one quarter the duration of a half note (minim), one eighth the duration of whole note (semibreve), one sixteenth the duration of a double whole note (breve), and one thirty-second the duration of a longa, hence the name. It is the equivalent of the fusa in mensural notation
Eighth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with one flag note flag (see Figure 1). A related symbol is the eighth rest (or quaver rest), which denotes a silence for the same duration.
In Unicode, the symbols U+266A (♪) and U+266B (♫) are an eighth note and beamed pair of eighth notes respectively. The two symbols are inherited from the early 1980s code page 437, where they occupied codes 13 and 14 respectively. Additions to the Unicode standard also incorporated additional eighth note depictions from Japanese emoji sets: ascending eighth notes (U+1F39C, ????), descending eighth notes (U+1F39D, ????), a graphical generic musical note generally depicted as an eighth note (U+1F3B5, ????), and three unconnected eighth notes in sequence (U+1F3B6, ????). Unicode's Musical Symbols block includes several variations of the eighth note; these are the versions intended to be used in computerized musical notation (as opposed to the others, which are graphical dingbats).
As with all notes with stems, the general rule is that eighth notes are drawn with stems to the right of the notehead, facing up, when they are below the middle line of the musical staff. When they are on or above the middle line, they are drawn with stems on the left of the note head, facing down. Alternatively, stems are used to indicate voicing or parts; all stems for the upper voice's notes (or "parts") are drawn facing up, regardless of their position on the staff. Similarly, stems for the next lower part's notes are down facing down. This makes the voices/parts clear to the player and singer.
Flags are always on the right side of the stem, and curve to the right. On stems facing up, the flag starts at the top and curves down; for downward facing stems, the flags start at the bottom of the stem and curve up. When multiple eighth notes or sixteenth notes (or thirty-second notes, etc.) are next to each other, the stems may be connected with a beam rather than a flag, as shown in Figure 2. Its rhythm syllable is 'ti'.
Eighth notes in 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8 are beamed three eighth notes at a time.
Usage examples of "eighth note".
Catfish grinned, and there was that gold tooth with the eighth note cut in it glistening in the morning sunshine.
He set the ear-pricker to 672 cycles, the next dominant note in Divak eight and two (Daka-nan, the eighth note of the nine-tone Cardassian scale, as Divak was the fourth).