pentachord Mus.
(ˈpɛntəkɔːd)
[f. penta- + Gr. χορδή string, chord.]
1. A musical instrument with five strings.
| 1721 Bailey, Pentachord, any musical instrument that has five strings. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The invention of the pentachord is referred to the Scythians. 1759 in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 4 A piece composed on purpose for an instrument newly-invented in London, and called the pentachord. 1825 Fosbroke Encycl. Antiq. 629 Pentachord, strung with ox leather, and touched by a goat's foot. |
2. A system or series of five notes.
| 1811 Busby Dict. Mus. (ed. 3), Pentachord,..among the ancients, sometimes signified..an order, or system, of five sounds. 1880 W. S. Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 341 Each of these [ecclesiastical] Modes is divisible into two members, a Pentachord, and a Tetrachord. |
† 3. The interval of a fifth. Obs. rare.
| 1694 W. Holder Harmony (1731) 66 (Table of Intervals) 5th. Diapente, Pentachord. |