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diminuendo

UK/dɪˌmɪnjuːˈɛndəʊ/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,006 of 15,258Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: diminuendos

A diminuendo is a passage that fades steadily quieter. Play the diminuendo.

It is marked by a narrowing hairpin in the score and is the opposite of a crescendo. A long diminuendo is harder to play than a loud passage, since control is the whole of it.

Pearson Scott Foresman · Public domain

Definitions of diminuendo

  1. 1noundiminuendoA passage that fades steadily quieter.C2

    “The whole last page is one long diminuendo into silence.”

diminuendo is a passage.

Where it comes from

  1. Italian

    diminuendo

  2. English, today

    diminuendo

Borrowed from Italian diminuendo.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

diminuendo in the wild

  • The addition of stops, in order from quietest to loudest, creates the effect of a crescendo (and, likewise, a diminuendo, when the stops are deactivated).

    Crescendo pedal

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.