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• piano
  piano

  noun

  a musical instrument in which felt-covered hammers, operated from a keyboard, strike the metal strings.
• Piano
  Piano

  noun

  Renzo. born 1937, Italian architect; buildings include the Pompidou Centre, Paris (1977; with Richard Rogers), the Potsdamer Platz redevelopment, Berlin (1998), and The Shard, London (2012)

piano

¹ American  

[pee-an-oh, pyan-oh] / piˈæn oʊ, ˈpjæn oʊ /

noun

• pianos
  plural

1. a musical instrument in which felt-covered hammers, operated from a keyboard, strike the metal strings.

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piano ² American  

[pee-ah-noh, pyah-naw] / piˈɑ noʊ, ˈpjɑ nɔ /

adjective

1. soft; subdued.

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adverb

1. softly. p, p.

piano ¹ British  

/ pɪˈænəʊ /

noun

1. a musical stringed instrument resembling a harp set in a vertical or horizontal frame, played by depressing keys that cause hammers to strike the strings and produce audible vibrations See also grand piano upright piano

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Piano ² British  

/ pjˈɑno /

noun

1. Renzo. born 1937, Italian architect; buildings include the Pompidou Centre, Paris (1977; with Richard Rogers), the Potsdamer Platz redevelopment, Berlin (1998), and The Shard, London (2012)

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piano ³ British  

/ ˈpjɑːnəʊ /

adjective

1. p. music (to be performed) softly

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piano Cultural  

1. A musical direction meaning “to be performed softly”; the opposite of forte. As the name of a musical instrument, it is short for pianoforte.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pianos
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of piano¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; short for pianoforte

Origin of piano²

1675–85; < Italian: soft, low (of sounds), plain, flat < Latin plānus plain ¹

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Explanation

A piano is a large musical instrument that you play by pressing black and white keys on a keyboard. Most people play a piano with their fingers, but Jerry Lee Lewis played with his fingers, feet, elbows, and, ahem, backside. A piano makes a sound when each key moves a small hammer that strikes a metal string. The inside of a piano looks kind of like a harp. Pianos are vital in many kinds of music, from classical to pop, and in the case of Lewis, boogie-woogie. Piano comes from the original Italian name for the instrument: piano e forte, "soft and loud." Piano is also the musical notation that tells the player that something should be played quietly.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

piano Piano pianos

“We got to record piano on the same one Prince used for ‘Purple Rain,’ ” Zachary said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

But a baby grand piano which featured in the artwork for the Supersonic single, which was valued at between £100,000 and £150,000 failed to sell.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

“I keep a piano because finally, finally, finally, I’m going to learn to play the piano.”

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026

There is still plenty of Dickensian melodrama, especially when Livia relates the sequence of catastrophes that account for her transformation from a virtuoso with dreams of stardom to a small-town piano teacher and farmer’s wife.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

A crushed popcorn box sailed across the room and hit the piano player on the shoulder.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

The contrast between restrained facades and secretive decoration gets to the heart of the Genoese mentality, says Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, who divides his time between his native Genoa and Paris.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Neill's acting career began in the 1970s and has spanned dozens of roles in TV and film, including "Peaky Blinders", "The Hunt for Red October", and "The Piano".

From Barron's ● Apr. 29, 2026

Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo will oversee the celebrations for the seventh time, alongside tenor Nicky Spence and pianist Yuja Wang, who will give the Proms' debut of Samuel Barber's Pulitzer Prize-winning Piano Concerto.

From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026

Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar – One night, about 100 women from the Women in Auto Care conference I was attending descended on this place with zero warning — and the staff didn’t miss a beat.

From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2026

Piano lessons with Mrs. Virgil were always full of small fears.

From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English

Crafty folks will often repurpose pianos for $100 to $500 or so.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

But today’s meager market for pianos makes it especially hard to find new homes for them.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

At this point, Mr. Dessner’s instantly identifiable studio techniques—stately pianos, dry and uninflected recordings captured up close, rushing builds when a song lurches toward a climax—have become shopworn.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

One got in touch to invite Jimmy to see one of Sinatra's old pianos.

From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026

His show-stopping performances encouraged piano builders to adopt iron frames to replace wooden ones, because pianos simply broke under the hammering Liszt gave them on stage.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

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Related Words

• grand piano
• instrument
• keyboard

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