 thumb|right|250px|figure 1. a whole note and a whole rest.  in music, a whole note (american) or semibreve (british) is a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note (or minim), and no note stem (see figure 1). its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time. most other notes are fractions of the whole note; half notes are played for one half the duration of the whole note, quarter notes (or crotchets) are each played for one quarter the duration, etc. a whole note lasts half as long as a double whole note (or breveâhence the british name, semibreve), and twice as long as a half note, or minim. the symbol is first found in music notation from the late thirteenth century . a related symbol is the whole rest (or semibreve rest), which usually denotes a silence for the same duration. whole rests are drawn as filled-in rectangles hanging under the second line from the top of a musical staff. ==other lengths== the whole note and whole rest may also be used in music of free rhythm, such as anglican chant, to denote a whole measure, irrespective of the time of that measure. the whole rest can be used this way in almost all or all forms of music. ==etymology== the whole note derives from the semibrevis of mensural notation, and this is the origin of the british name. the american name is a calque of the german ganze note. the names of this note (and rest) in different languages vary greatly: {|class="wikitable" |- !language !note name !rest name |- |catalan || rodona || silenci de rodona |- |arabic|| Ø§ÙØ¨ÙØ¶Ø§Ø¡|| Ø³ÙØªØ© Ø§ÙØ¨ÙØ¶Ø§Ø¡ |- |estonian || tÃ¤isnoot || tÃ¤ispaus |- |chinese (ä¸­æ) || å¨é³ç¬¦ || å¨ä¼æ­¢ç¬¦ |- |danish || helnode || helnodepause |- |dutch || hele noot || hele rust |- |french || ronde || pause |- |german || ganze note || ganze pause |- |greek || olokliro (Î¿Î»ÏÎºÎ»Î·ÏÎ¿)|| pafsi oloklirou (ÏÎ±ÏÏÎ· Î¿Î»Î¿ÎºÎ»Î®ÏÎ¿Ï) |- |italian || semibreve || pausa di semibreve |- |japanese || å¨é³ç¬¦ (zen onpu) || å¨ä¼ç¬¦ (zen kyÅ«fu) |- |korean || ì¨ìí || ì¨ì¼í |- |lithuanian || pilnoji nata || pilnoji pauzÄ |- |portuguese || semibreve || pausa de semibreve |- |polish || caÅa nuta || pauza caÅonutowa |- |romanian||notÄ Ã®ntreagÄ||pauzÄ de nota intreaga |- |russian || ÑÐµÐ»Ð°Ñ Ð½Ð¾ÑÐ° || ÑÐµÐ»Ð°Ñ Ð¿Ð°ÑÐ·Ð° |- |serbian || cela nota / ÑÐµÐ»Ð° Ð½Ð¾ÑÐ° || cela pauza / ÑÐµÐ»Ð° Ð¿Ð°ÑÐ·Ð° |- |spanish || redonda || silencio de redonda |- |swedish || helnot || helpaus |- |thai ||à¹à¸à¹à¸à¸à¸±à¸§à¸à¸¥à¸¡ ||à¸à¸±à¸§à¸«à¸¢à¸¸à¸à¸à¸±à¸§à¸à¸¥à¸¡ |} the catalan, french and spanish names for the note (meaning "round") derive from the fact that the semibrevis was distinguished 
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