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legato

UK/ləˈɡɑ.təʊ/US/ləˈɡɑ.toʊ/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,893 of 15,258leans written

Legato means played smoothly, each note running into the next. Play it legato, a legato phrase, legato and soft.

It is marked with a slur over the notes and the player leaves no gap between them — the opposite is staccato, where each note is short and separate. How it is achieved differs by instrument: bowing, breath or the pedal. Note that the Italian means tied, from the Latin for binding.

Definitions of legato

  1. 1adjectivelegatoPlayed smoothly, each note running into the next.C1

    “The violin's long, legato phrases sounded almost like someone singing.”

legato is a musical direction.

Where it comes from

Italian legato means tied, from legare, to bind, from Latin ligare. Ligament and ally come from the same binding.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *leyǵ-

  2. Latin

    ligō — tie, bind

  3. Italian

    legato

  4. English, today

    legato

Built from

  • legare · Italian — to tie up, tie together, to bind

Borrowed from Italian legato, past participle of legare (“to tie up, tie together, to bind”), learned borrowing from Latin ligō (“tie, bind”). a doublet of ligate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

legato in the wild

  • Standard notation indicates legato either with the word legato, or by a slur (a curved line) under notes that form one legato group.

    Legato

  • There is an intermediate articulation called either mezzo staccato or non-legato (sometimes referred to as portato).

    Legato

  • A slur is a symbol in Western musical notation indicating that the notes it embraces are to be played without separation (that is, with legato articulation).

    Slur (music)

  • For 18th-century composers, cantabile is often synonymous with "cantando" (singing) and indicates a measured tempo and flexible, legato playing.

    Cantabile

  • When playing a lick, scale or pattern that would require alternate strokes or sweeps, but a few notes are spared with the use of legato.

    Economy picking

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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.

Related words

the ligō family

allybasicallyleague

legato — used about once every 16,706 pages · #12,893 · point at the bar for the others