Hypertext Webster Gateway: "plagal"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Plagal \Pla"gal\, a. [F., from Gr. ? sidewise, slanting.] (Mus.)
Having a scale running from the dominant to its octave; --
said of certain old church modes or tunes, as opposed to
those called authentic, which ran from the tonic to its
octave.
{Plagal cadence}, a cadence in which the final chord on the
tonic is preceded by the chord on the subdominant.
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