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Definition of tacet in English:

tacet

adverb

Music

  • (as a direction) with the voice or instrument silent.

    ‘the concert finishes with the piano playing tacet before doom arrives’
    • ‘In so labour-intensive an undertaking as a symphony, we regard the long oboe tacet passages to be extremely wasteful.’
    • ‘I love the ascending figure he plays just at the beginning of his solo, when the rest of the gang is briefly tacet - that bit is pure invention.’
    • ‘For this song, I was tacet on reps 1-3.’

Pronunciation

tacet

/ˈtāsət/ /ˈteɪsət/ /ˈtäˌket/ /ˈtɑˌkɛt/

adjective

Music

  • Performed with the voice or instrument silent.

    • ‘one of the men was pulling out his phone and texting whenever he had a few tacet measures’

Pronunciation

tacet

/ˈtāsət/ /ˈteɪsət/ /ˈtäˌket/ /ˈtɑˌkɛt/

Origin

Latin, literally ‘is silent’, from tacere ‘be silent’.