adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The accented beat at the beginning of a bar (indicated by a conductor with a downward stroke).
2. 2
   the first beat of a musical measure (as the conductor's arm moves downward) wordnet

Adjective

1. 1
   Sad or pessimistic.

   "He sounded downbeat when asked about his future plans."

2. 2
   Cautiously optimistic.

   "She carried herself with a quiet downbeat grace."

Synonyms

All synonyms

arsisbar beatbeatboutcassandra-likecassandran

Antonyms

All antonyms

upbeat

Example

More examples

"The orchestra entered on the downbeat of the conductor's baton."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From down + beat.

Etymology 2

Earlier downbeaten, from the phrasal verb beat down

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.