Sixteenth note
A sixteenth note is a filled-in oval with a stem and two flags. It lasts half as long as an eighth note. In Britain it is called a semiquaver.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Sixteen sixteenth notes last as long as a whole note, and four as long as a quarter note. Grouped sixteenth notes have beams in place of their flags. Each extra flag halves the length again: a 32nd note has three.
Also searched as: semiquaver.
Look-alikes
An eighth note has one flag or beam; a 32nd note has three.
British and American names
Sixteenth note is the American name and semiquaver the British. The shorter British names add prefixes to the same word: a 32nd note is a demisemiquaver and a 64th a hemidemisemiquaver.
Read next
- Next in Music symbolsDotted noteA dot just after a note makes it half as long again. A dotted half note lasts as long as three quarter notes; a dotted quarter note as long as three eighth notes.
- The same shape in Air Force ranksChief master sergeant (E-9)Chief master sergeant, pay grade E-9: the highest of the senior noncommissioned officer ranks in the US Air Force. The insignia is five stripes below a star in a circle and three stripes above it.
More music symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles, curves and waves or lines.
Sources
- Music Notation and Terminology, Karl W. Gehrkens, 1914, A. S. Barnes Company (Project Gutenberg), Chapter III, §30–31
- Primer of Facts about Music, M. G. Evans, 1909, Theodore Presser Co. (Internet Archive, University of Toronto), Q. 13–14
- Stainer and Barrett's Dictionary of Musical Terms, John Stainer and W. A. Barrett, new and revised edition, 1898, Novello (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library), Semiquaver
- SMuFL: Individual notes, Standard Music Font Layout, glyph table U+E1D0–U+E1EF, W3C Music Notation Community Group, U+E1D9, U+E1DB, U+E1DD
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
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