Definition of "pentatonic" [pentatonic]

• Music Of or using only five tones, usually the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth tones of a diatonic scale. (adjective)

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.

• "There is no doubt that the pentatonic is the musical scale of all Malaysia, and probably of all China; and none also that the diatonic, almost universal in Europe, is the musical scale of portions of India."
• "Goethe has there suggested; and we shall find it can be arranged in what I may call a pentatonic scale of culture."
• "* 2: That means the pentatonic is the (I, II, III, V, VI)"