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acciaccatura

[uh-chah-kuh-too r-uh; Italian aht-chahk-kah-too-rah]
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noun, plural ac·ciac·ca·tu·ras, ac·ciac·ca·tu·re [-too r-ey, -too r-ee; Italian -too-re] /-ˈtʊər eɪ, -ˈtʊər i; Italian -ˈtu rɛ/. Music.

a short grace note one half step below, and struck at the same time as, a principal note.

Nearby words

  1. accessory shoe,
  2. accessory spleen,
  3. accessory symptom,
  4. accessory vertebral vein,
  5. accessway,
  6. accidence,
  7. accident,
  8. accident boat,
  9. accident insurance,
  10. accident prone

Origin of acciaccatura

1875–80; < Italian: literally, a pounding, crushing, equivalent to acciacc(are) to crush, bruise (based on an echoic root ciacc-) + -atura (see -ate1, -ure)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for acciaccatura

  • In the second half of the first bar, the acciaccatura was never intended by the composer to be actually sung as printed.

    Style in Singing|W. E. Haslam

  • The appoggiatura is always accented, but the acciaccatura never is, the stress always falling on the melody tone.

    Music Notation and Terminology|Karl W. Gehrkens

  • The acciaccatura (or short appoggiatura) is written like the appoggiatura except that it has a light stroke across its stem.

    Music Notation and Terminology|Karl W. Gehrkens
British Dictionary definitions for acciaccatura

acciaccatura

noun plural -ras or -re (-reɪ, -riː)

a small grace note melodically adjacent to a principal note and played simultaneously with or immediately before it
(in modern music) a very short appoggiatura

Word Origin for acciaccatura

C18: Italian: literally, a crushing sound
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012