Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DI-A-PA'SON, or DI'A-PASE, n. [Gr. δια πασων, through all.]

1. In music, the octave or interval which includes all the tones.
2. Among musical instrument-makers, a rule, or scale by which they adjust the pipes of organs, the holes of flutes, &c., in due proportion for expressing the several tones and semitones. – Busby. Diapáson-diapen'te, a compound consonance in a triple ratio, as 3 to 9, consisting of 9 tones and a semitone, or 19 semitones; a twelfth. – Encyc. Busby. Diapáson-diates'saron, a compound concord, founded on the proportion of 8 to 3, consisting of eight tones and a semitone. Diapáson-ditone, a compound concord, whose terms are as 10 to 4, or 5 to 2. Diapáson-semiditone, a compound concord, whose terms are in the proportion of 12 to 5. – Encyc.