forte
adverb · noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A strength or talent.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fawrtaySay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɔɹteɪ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adverb
music
Loudly, as a dynamic in a piece of music.
noun
A strength or talent; a strong point.
A musical composition or musical passage to be performed loudly
A passage in music to be played loudly; a loud section of music.
The stronger part of a sword blade between the hilt and the foible
adjective
musicused chiefly as a direction or description in music
Loud; with force
“The forte passages in the composition.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Loudly, as a dynamic in a piece of music.
Used this way, forte is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
Nearby words
- fortissimo , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use forte
- “The forte passages in the composition.”adjective
- “Cooking is his forte.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The cardinal number that is the product of ten and four.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A keyboard instrument that is played by depressing keys that cause hammers to strike tuned strings and produce sounds.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: loudly
Antonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.