durées

Durée is a French noun meaning the length of time something lasts. The plural durées is used when discussing multiple time spans. In French, the term covers both the general concept of time length and specific, measurable intervals. In everyday language, it appears in expressions such as la durée de vie, la durée d’un voyage, or la durée moyenne d’un appel. In technical contexts, it is often specified in units such as seconds or minutes.

In music, durée refers to the value or length of a note or rest within a rhythmic framework. Musical notation encodes durée through note heads and flags; performers realize musical phrases by sustaining sounds for the indicated durations. The concept can be considered absolute (exact value) or relative within a tempo.

In philosophy, especially in the work of Henri Bergson, durée denotes the qualitative, subjective flow of time as experienced in consciousness. It contrasts with measured clock time and is often discussed in terms of continuous duration rather than discrete instants. The plural durées may appear when contrasting different experiential durations, or when analyzing different streams of consciousness.

In scientific and professional contexts, durations are measured and analyzed as time intervals. They are essential in scheduling, experiments, pharmacology, and media production, where the duration of events affects planning and interpretation.

See also: time, duration, time interval, tempo.