☼ Concept Map

''tempo'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

↩ 🔳 🔳 🔳

Primary

⁀➴

''tempo'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260331180822-00-⌔

tempo - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

tempo (plural tempos or tempi)

  • A frequency or rate.
    • ✤ 10 calls per hour isn’t a bad start, but we’ll need to up the tempo if we want to reach our target of selling insurance policies.
  • (chess) A move which is part of one’s own plan or strategy and forces, e.g. by means of a check or attacking a piece, the opponent to make a move which is not bad but of no use (the player gains a tempo, the opponent loses a tempo), or equivalently a player achieves the same result in fewer moves by one approach rather than another.
  • (bridge) The timing advantage of being on lead, thus being first to initiate a strategy to develop tricks for one’s side.
  • The timing of a particular event – earlier or later than in an alternative situation.
    • ✤ the tempo effect in fertility measurements
  • (music) The number of beats per minute in a piece of music; also, an indicative term denoting approximate rate of speed in written music (examples: allegro, andante)
    • ✤ The conductor asked the orchestra to increase the tempo.
    • ✤ The song has a slow tempo that makes it relaxing.
    • ✤ The dancer kept pace with the shifting tempo of the music.
  • (cycling) The steady pace set by the frontmost riders.
  • A small truck or cargo van with three or four wheels, commonly used for commercial transport and deliveries (particularly in Asian and African countries).
    • ✤ From the back door of a tempo with his too-strong hands he lifted a woman wearing red clothes, like a precious jewel wrapped in gold embroidered cloth.1
  • (American football) A rapid rate of play by the offense resulting from reducing the amount of time which elapses after one play ends and the next starts.

Noun

tempo (plural tempos)

  • A temporary carport.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈtɛm.pəʊ/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈtɛm.poʊ/
  • Rhymes: -ɛmpəʊ

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Italian tempo, from Latin tempus (“time”). Doublet of tense.

(truck or cargo van): A genericized trademark, originally associated with the manufacturer Vidal & Sohn Tempo-Werke GmbH.

Etymology 2

Clipping of temporary.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 2025, Banu Mushtaq, “Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!”, in Deepa Bhasthi, transl., Heart Lamp, And Other Stories, page 208: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

• • •