maestro
Americannoun
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maestros,
plural
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maestri
plural
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an eminent composer, teacher, or conductor of music.
Toscanini and other great maestros.
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(initial capital letter) a title of respect used in addressing or referring to such a person.
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a master of any art.
the maestros of poetry.
noun
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a distinguished music teacher, conductor, or musician
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any man regarded as the master of an art: often used as a term of address
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of maestro
1790–1800; < Italian: master
Explanation
A maestro is an artistic master: someone who is skilled enough to be considered an artistic genius. Taking one music class or art class can teach you a lot, but it won't make you a maestro. Maestro (which comes from Italian) is reserved for people with an enormous amount of skill and talent. This word can apply to any type of artist — and sometimes, to people with impressive skills in other areas — but it's most commonly applied to musicians. Master composers, pianists, cellists, guitarists, and conductors are often called maestros.
Vocabulary lists containing maestro
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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Stargirl
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The Phantom Tollbooth
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That mindset has made him a horror maestro for over three decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
The emergence of centre-back William Saliba and creative maestro Michael Olise are among the refresh for Didier Deschamps' side since then.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
It had enlisted an unlikely negotiator: a celebrated Kenyan maestro who had come to enjoy the performance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
I will miss watching the greatest maestro and savant in the history of basketball, LeBron James.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2026
“I am Chroma the Great,” he continued, gesturing broadly with his hands, “conductor of color, maestro of pigment, and director of the entire spectrum.”
From "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster
Just as much, those maestri would defer to Mr. Drucker’s interpretations of clarinet solos.
From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2022
As an example let us take the case of the radio maestri.
From Time Magazine Archive
The art of Priscilla seems to me to satisfy this test much better than that of many of our modern maestri.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, July 7th, 1920 by Various
And this piece of ecclesiastical furniture therefore presented a great field for the taste and ingenuity of the old maestri in wood-carving to exhibit their skill both in design and in execution.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 102, June, 1876 by Various
For five years now I've given up what I'd like to do, and I've tried, under the best maestri I could find, to make something out of my voice, so to speak.
From The Bent Twig by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Donning video headsets and armed with nothing more than a joystick and the Olympics’ fastest fingers, these maestros have the exact same objective as the athlete they’re filming: to be the best in the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
Frank’s own world was composed as a symphony: His “orchestras” united Palestinians and Israelis in Berlin, marginalized students with maestros, modern musicians with compositions across centuries and genres.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
A photo in his shop shows maestros Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and Bhajan Sopori performing with his instruments.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2025
He delighted audiences at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall and collaborated with jazz legends, Western classical orchestras, and Carnatic music maestros.
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2024
In the classical music world, 80 percent of the information available to the maestros was removed, and lo and behold, the maestros suddenly exercised much better judgment.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
