percussion

Contents

English

Etymology

From Middle French, Old French percussion, from Latin percussiō (“striking”), from percutiō (“I strike”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɚˈkʌʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌʃən

Noun

percussion (countable and uncountable, plural percussions)

1. (countable) The collision of two bodies in order to produce a sound.
2. (countable) The sound so produced.
3. (countable) The detonation of a percussion cap in a firearm.
4. (medicine) The tapping of the body as an aid to medical diagnosis.
5. (music) The section of an orchestra or band containing percussion instruments; such instruments considered as a group; in bands, may be separate from drum kits.
6. (engineering) The repeated striking of an object to break or shape it, as in percussion drilling.
7. (palmistry) The outer side of the hand.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• hand percussion
• percussion break
• percussion cap
• percussion idiophone

• percussion instrument
• percussionist
• percussively

Related terms

• quash

Translations

collision producing a sound

• Catalan: percussió f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 擊發, 击发 (jīfā)

• Finnish: lyönti (fi)

• Galician: percusión (gl) f
• Icelandic: samsláttur m, sláttur (is) m, barningur (is) m
• Russian: столкнове́ние (ru) n (stolknovénije), уда́р (ru) m (udár)

sound produced by collision

• Catalan: percussió f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 擊發的聲音, 击发的声音 (jīfā de shēngyīn)

• Finnish: lyöntiääni
• Icelandic: please add this translation if you can

detonation of percussion cap

medicine: tapping of the body

• Catalan: percussió f
• Danish: perkussion c

• Finnish: koputtelu (fi)
• Russian: высту́кивание (ru) n (vystúkivanije), перку́ссия (ru) f (perkússija)

music: section of percussion instruments

• Catalan: percussió f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 打擊樂器 (zh), 打击乐器 (zh) (dǎjī yuèqì)

• Czech: bicí
• Danish: slagtøj n, percussion c
• Finnish: lyömäsoittimet (fi) pl, lyömäsoitinryhmä
• German: Perkussion (de) f
• Icelandic: slagverk n

• Irish: cnaguirlis f
• Maori: papā
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: slagverk n

  Nynorsk: slagverk n

• Portuguese: percussão (pt) f
• Russian: уда́рный инструме́нт m (udárnyj instrumént) (percussion instrument)
• Spanish: percusión (es) f

engineering: repeated striking

• Finnish: tärytys (fi)

Anagrams

• coin purses, croupiness, supersonic

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French

Noun

percussion f (plural percussions)

1. percussion (tapping of the body)
2. (music) percussion

Further reading

• “percussion” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).