Definition of "extrasystole" []

• A premature contraction of the heart, resulting in momentary cardiac arrhythmia. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Anyway, my new words: extrasystole as in “He asked me if it was like an extrasystole.”"
• "To describe a single extrasystole, an ectopic heartbeat, as like a slight stumble in a dance and to introduce the complex mechanism of hearing with the statement that 'every one of us has a tiny harp inside his ear' suggests that he is a skillful teacher.… The kathartai, forerunners of doctors in pre-Hippocratic Greece, were said to purify the soul by the soothing and calming combination of music, dance, poetry and song."
• "To describe a single extrasystole, an ectopic heartbeat, as like a slight stumble in a dance and to introduce the complex mechanism of hearing with the statement that 'every one of us has a tiny harp inside his ear' suggests that he is a skillful teacher."