Xenness

Xenness is a subjective measure of how xenharmonic an interval or chord is. There are many ways to quantify it, but an understanding can be helpful when making xenharmonic music.

Distance from 12edo

Being the dominant tuning system worldwide, 12edo is the standard against which xenharmonic music is judged. By this metric, all intervals 50¢ from the nearest 12edo step (alternating steps of 24edo) are considered the most xenharmonic.

Intervals can be categorized by whether they are closer to a 12edo interval or an alternating 24edo interval. For example, 75¢ to 125¢ is closer to a minor second and 125¢ to 175¢ is closer to a neutral second. This category could be called "middle second" to avoid ambiguity. Main article: Neutral second