perfect pitch

English

Noun

perfect pitch (countable and uncountable, plural perfect pitches)

1. (music, uncountable) The ability to identify a note by name on hearing it, or to re-create a specified note from memory, without the benefit of an externally provided reference pitch.

   Synonym: absolute pitch

   Coordinate term: relative pitch

2. (figurative, uncountable) By extension, a reliable innate sense of exactly what is true, appropriate, or needed in a given particular situation.
   • 2015, Sophia Nguyen, “Mumblecore's Maestro: The perfect pitch of filmmaker Andrew Bujalski”, in Harvard Magazine, September-October 2015:

     Bujalski has perfect pitch: an instinct for how language meanders, and the lacunae it circles around.

3. (music, less common, countable or uncountable) The exact pitch of a note, described by its frequency in vibrations per second.

Translations

ability to identify or re-create a note

• Dutch: absoluut gehoor n, volmaakt gehoor n
• Estonian: absoluutne kuulmine (et)
• Finnish: absoluuttinen sävelkorva (fi)
• French: oreille absolue (fr) f
• German: absolutes Gehör (de) n, Tonhöhengedächtnis n
• Greek: απόλυτο αυτί n (apólyto aftí), απόλυτη ακοή f (apólyti akoḯ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: absolutt gehør n

• Polish: słuch absolutny (pl) m
• Romanian: auz absolut n, ureche muzicală absolută f
• Russian: абсолю́тный слух (ru) m (absoljútnyj slux)
• Spanish: oído absoluto m
• Swedish: absolut gehör n

exact pitch — see absolute pitch

See also

• pitch-perfect

Anagrams

• pitch perfect, pitch-perfect