any of several scales consisting of five notes, the most commonly encountered one being composed of the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth degrees of the major diatonic scale
pentatonic scale in American English
(ˈpentəˈtɑnɪk, ˌpen-)
noun
Music
a scale having five tones to an octave, as one having intervals that correspond to the five black keys of a piano octave
Word origin
[1860–65; penta- + tonic]This word is first recorded in the period 1860–65. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: blind spot, calibrate, jumping jack, metric system, pop-uppenta- is a combining form occurring in loanwords from Greek, meaning “five” (Pentateuch). On this model, penta- is used in the formation of compound words (pentavalent). Other words that use the affix penta- include: cyclopentadiene, pentachlorophenol, pentaprism, pentaptych, pentastyle