Syncopation

noun

1. A shift of accent in a passage or composition that occurs when a normally weak beat is stressed.
2. Something, such as rhythm, that is syncopated.
3. Syncope.
4. The contraction of a word by taking a letter, letters, or a syllable from the middle, as in the seamen's <em>fo'c'sle</em> for <em>forecastle</em>; especially, such omission of a short vowel between two consonants.
5. In <em>music</em>, the act, process, or result of inverting the rhythmic accent by beginning a tone or tones on an unaccented beat or pulse, and sustaining them into an accented one, so that the proper emphasis on the latter is more or less transferred back or anticipated.