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Meter is a metric measurement slightly longer than a yard; thus, a 100-meter dash might take you a second longer than a 100-yard dash. But the word has a different sense in music, where people aren't separated by whether they use the metric system. For a musician, the meter is the regular background rhythm, expressed by the "time signature" written at the beginning of a piece or section: 2/2, 2/4, 3/8, 4/4, 6/8, etc. Within a meter, you can create rhythms that range from the simple to the complex. So, for example, "America the Beautiful" is in 4/4 meter (or "4/4 time"), but so are most of the rhythmically complex songs written by Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach, or Stevie Wonder. In ordinary conversation, though, most people use "rhythm" to include meter and everything that's built on top of it. In poetry, meter has much the same meaning; however, poetic meters aren't named with numbers but instead with traditional Greek and Latin terms such as iambic and dactylic.
Synonyms
Examples of meter in a Sentence
Dubai Tourism Contributor, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
This article contains additional reporting from The Associated Press
fairness meter
Newsweek is committed to journalism that's factual and fair.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2024
Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 18 Oct. 2024
The spike in air traffic has resulted in additional requirements being put in place for aircraft entering certain areas of North Carolina in order to meter the flow of air traffic.
—Kris Van Cleave, CBS News, 4 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near meter
Cite this Entry
“Meter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meter. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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meter
1 of 3 noun
meter
2 of 3 nounmeter
3 of 3 nounMedical Definition
meter
1 of 2 nounmeter
2 of 2 noun
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