What does "semibreve" mean?

A musical note four beats long in 4/4 time; a whole note (US)

What is a synonym for "semibreve"?

Common synonyms include: whole note, accidental, crotchet, dominant, flat, minim.

Pronounced //ˈsɛmɪbɹiːv//.

//ˈsɛmɪbɹiːv// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A musical note four beats long in 4/4 time; a whole note (US) Commonwealth, Ireland, UK
2
a musical note having the longest time value (equal to four beats in common time) wordnet

From Italian semibreve, ultimately from Latin semi- (“half”) and Latin brevis (“short”).

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