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dominant

The tension chord that wants to fall back to the tonic (the V).

The chord a fifth above home (V), and the strongest pull in tonal music. It contains the leading tone, the note a semitone under home that aches to resolve upward, which is why V to I feels like an arrival and why cadences lean on it. Add a seventh and the pull gets stronger still.

Learn it: Roman numerals

The one-sentence definition at the top is the same one the Theory Aide extension shows as a tooltip inside Ableton Live. Hover any dotted term for its own.