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vibrato

UK/vɪˈbɹɑːtoʊ/US/vɪˈbɹɑːtoʊ/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,577 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: vibratos

Vibrato is a slight wobble in pitch that warms a held note. Add vibrato, wide vibrato, without vibrato.

It is a change in pitch, which is what separates it from tremolo, a change in volume — and the two are constantly confused, including by instrument makers who label the wrong control. Early music is often played without it, deliberately.

Punkettaro · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of vibrato

  1. 1nounvibratoA slight wobble in pitch that warms a held note.C1

    “The violinist added a gentle vibrato to the long, slow notes.”

vibrato is a technique.

Where it comes from

Italian vibrato is the past participle of vibrare, to vibrate, from Latin vibrare.

  1. Italian

    vibrato

  2. English, today

    vibrato

Built from

  • vibrare · Italian — to vibrate

Borrowed from Italian vibrato, past participle of vibrare (“to vibrate”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

vibrato in the wild

  • Guitars may have a fixed bridge or a spring-loaded hinged bridge, which lets players "bend" the pitch of notes or chords up or down, or perform vibrato effects.

    Electric guitar

  • The vibrato of a string instrument and wind instrument is an imitation of that vocal function.

    Vibrato

  • The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar.

    Floyd Rose

  • While the original release of the Stratocaster included a vibrato system, Stratocasters without it ("hardtails") were added to the portfolio in March 1955.

    Fender Stratocaster

  • The Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (or Bigsby for short) is a mechanical vibrato device for electric guitar designed by Paul Bigsby and produced by the Bigsby Electric Guitar Company.

    Bigsby vibrato tailpiece

1 / 3

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 vibrare family

vibrantvibrato

vibrato — used about once every 13,896 pages · #12,577 · point at the bar for the others