Sharp

(Fr. dièse; Ger. Kreuz; It. diesis; Sp. sostenido).

In Western notation the sign , normally placed to the left of a note and indicating that that note is to be raised in pitch by one semitone. Such a note is described in English usage as ‘sharpened’ and in American usage as ‘sharped’. The adjective ‘sharp’ is used to denote intonation above the notated pitch (though the phrase ‘sharp six’, and so on, is colloquially used to signify a note or chord of the sharpened 6th by reference to the figuring ‘6’). In some sources of the late 13th century to the mid-18th the diagonal croix form, X, is used; this is often placed below the note concerned.

A double sharp (Fr. double dièse; Ger. Doppelkreuz; It. doppio diesis), the notational sign , indicates that a note is to be raised in pitch by two semitones. In some early sources a double sharp is shown simply as .

See also Accidental; Notation; Pitch nomenclature.