semiquaver
/ˈsɛmiˌkweɪvə(ɹ)/noun
semiquaver is a noun meaning “A sixteenth note, drawn as a crotchet with two tails” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-E-M-I-Q-U-A-V-E-R, and it appears about once in every 65 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of semiquaver is semiquavers.
What does semiquaver mean?
noun
- 1
A sixteenth note, drawn as a crotchet with two tails.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce semiquaver?
- /ˈsɛmiˌkweɪvə(ɹ)/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-semiquaver.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of semiquaver
- semiquavers plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is semiquaver?
Semiquaver appears about once in every 65 million words in written English, the 252,559th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Semiquaver in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense music:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | double croche |
| German | Sechzehntelnote |
| Portuguese | semicolcheia |
| Spanish | semicorchea |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does semiquaver come from?
From semi- + quaver.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).