viola da gamba
noun
Simple meaning
Viol that is the bass member of the viol family with about the range of the cello.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vyohluhdahgambuhSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
vaɪˈoʊləˈdɑˈɡæmbə
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.
noun
music
Viol that is the bass member of the viol family with approximately the range of the cello
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Viol that is the bass member of the viol family with approximately the range of the cello
Used this way, viola da gamba 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
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.