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Play the marked section again.
Repeats are usually shown by repeat signs (bar lines with dots), but the word appears where the repeat changes something or needs saying: Repeat 8va, repeat ad lib., repeat is optional. It applies to the passage between the signs.
Use words when the repeat changes something (octave, dynamics, instrumentation) or is optional, and say how many times. In concert music a written-out repeat with changes is often clearer than signs plus words. Performers sometimes omit repeats; if a repeat is essential to the form, say so.
Joplin, The Entertainer, piano, m. 21: “Repeat 8va.” is printed at f, asking for the strain to be played an octave higher on its repeat.
Repeat is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
Browse the full dictionary →