sixth (siksth)

and n. [With term. conformed to -th3; h3; It. sesto = Sp. Pg. sexto = F. sixte ); as sir + -th3.] I. a. 1. Being the first after the fifth: the ordinal of six.-2. Being one of six equal parts into which a whole is divided.Sixth-day, Friday, as the sixth day of the week: so called among the Society of Friends. The sixth hour, the sixth of twelve hours reckoned from sunrise to sunset; the noontide hour; specifically, the canonical hour of sext. Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour . Acts x. 9. II. n. 1. A sixth part.-2. In early Eng . law , a sixth of the rents of the year, or of movables, or both, granted or levied by way of tax. 3. In music : (a) Atone on the sixth degree above or below a given tone. (b) The interval between any tone and a tone on the sixth degree above or below it. (c) The harmonic combination of two tones at the interval thus described. (d) In a scale, the sixth tone from the bottom; the submediant: solmizated la. The typical interval of the sixth is that between the first and the sixth tones of a major scale, which is acoustically represented by the ratio 3:5. Such a sixth is called major. A sixth a half-step shorter is called minor; one two half-steps shorter is called diminished; and one a half-step longer is called augmented, extreme, etc. Major and minor sixths are cla ed as consonances; other sixths as di onances.Chord of the added sixth, in music, a chord consisting of the first, second, fourth, and sixth tones of a scale, and usually regarded as a subdominant triad with a sixth from the root added. Its derivation is disputed. - Chord of the extreme sixth, in music, a chord in which, as typically arranged, there is an interval of an extreme or augmented sixth between the upper tone and the lower. It has three forms-( a ) the French sixth, consisting of the first, second, sixth, and sharped fourth of a minor scale; (b) the German sixth, consisting of the first, third, sixth, and sharped fourth of such a scale; (c) the Italian sixth, consisting of the first, sixth, French, German, Italian, and sharped fourth of such a scale. - Chord of the sixth, in music, a chord consisting of a tone with its third and its sixth: it is usually regarded as simply the first inversion of a triad.-Neapolitan sixth. See Neapolitan. sixthly (siksth'li), adv. [