fortissimo
adverb · noun
Simple meaning
Indicating that the piece is to be played very loudly.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fawrteeseemohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɔɹtiˈsimoʊ
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
Indicating that the piece is to be played very loudly.
noun
music
The dynamic sign indicating that the piece should be played fortissimo.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Indicating that the piece is to be played very loudly.
Used this way, fortissimo 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
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: indicating that the piece is to be played very 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.