From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishoctaveoc‧tave /ˈɒktəv, -teɪv $ ˈɑːk-/ noun [countable] a) APMthe range of musical notes between the first note of a scale and the last one b) APMthe first and last notes of a musical scale played together
Examples from the Corpus
octave• Throughout its range of 2 octaves it is capable of infinitely varied coloration and texture, from silky velvet to deliberate ugliness.• Rather, the carrier frequency swoops up or down about an octave.• What's more, Bill had a voice that was nearly an octave higher than Ben's.• A robin's song spans less than an octave.• The bassoons are at their most powerful in their bottom octave or so.• Ottovina, octave, eight: translation was something like love.• Its high register gives brilliance and point when doubling at the octave phrases allotted to other wind instruments or to the violins.Origin octave (1300-1400) Medieval Latin octava, from Latin octo “eight”; because there are eight notes in the range 