Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having cadence or rhythm.
  • adjective Archaic Falling, as water or tears.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In old music, a grace or embellishment consisting of an after-note one degree below the principal note: as
  • Falling; sinking.
  • In astrology, falling from an angle: applied to the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth houses, which follow the meridian and the horizon.
  • Specifically applied to the tenth of Professor H. D. Rogers's fifteen divisions of the Paleozoic strata of Pennsylvania, which suggest metaphorically the different natural periods of the day. It corresponds to the Hamilton group of the New York survey.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective rare Falling.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Falling.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective marked by a rhythmical cadence

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin cadēns, cadent-, present participle of cadere, to fall; see kad- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • It was harbingered also by the terrible comet of January, which appeared in a cadent and obscure house, denoting sickness and death: and another and yet more terrible comet, which will be found in the fiery triplicity of Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, will be seen before the conflagration.

    Old Saint Paul's A Tale of the Plague and the Fire William Harrison Ainsworth 1843

  • By this time the entire group were circling the house, and their wild shrill cadent song rose high and loud:'Ki--yi--yi--um--Ah! Ah! Ah! I--I--I!'

    The Blue Envelope 1918

  • The third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth houses are cadent.

    How to Read the Crystal or, Crystal and Seer 1864-1929 Sepharial 1896

  • You have begun now the Plotinian ascent from multiplicity to unity, and therefore begin to perceive in the Many the clear and actual presence of the One: the changeless and absolute Life, manifesting itself in all the myriad nascent, crescent, cadent lives.

    Practical Mysticism A Little Book for Normal People Evelyn Underhill 1908

  • The boys in the bays pierce the waves with the cadent zip-zip-zip of their impact wrenches pulling and replacing lug nuts around various vehicles from one wheel to another.

    Sufficient Grace Darnell Arnoult 2006

  • The boys in the bays pierce the waves with the cadent zip-zip-zip of their impact wrenches pulling and replacing lug nuts around various vehicles from one wheel to another.

    Sufficient Grace Darnell Arnoult 2006

  • Not the cadent rattle of the thin cylindrical drums the Trivigauntis used, but the steady _thumpa-thumpa-thump_ of Vironese war drums, drums that suggested the palaestra's big copper stew-pot whenever she saw them, war drums beating out the quickstep used to draw up troops in order of battle.

    Exodus From The Long Sun Wolfe, Gene 1996

  • You have begun now the Plotinian ascent from multiplicity to unity, and therefore begin to perceive in the Many the clear and actual presence of the One: the changeless and absolute Life, manifesting itself in all the myriad nascent, crescent, cadent lives.

    Practical Mysticism 1875-1941 1915

  • I saw no horses, no sign of life; heard no sound but the cadent wail of the ash-grey birds in their flights.

    Henry Brocken His Travels and Adventures in the Rich, Strange, Scarce-Imaginable Regions of Romance Walter De la Mare 1914

  • The twelve houses are divided into cardinal houses, also called anguli, succeeding houses (succedentes, anaphora) and declining or cadent houses (cadentes, cataphora).

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2: Assizes-Browne 1840-1916 1913

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