acciaccatura

American  

[uh-chah-kuh-toor-uh, aht-chahk-kah-too-rah] / əˌtʃɑ kəˈtʊər ə, ɑtˌtʃɑk kɑˈtu rɑ /

noun

Music.

acciaccaturas, plural acciaccature plural

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

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acciaccatura British  

/ ɑːˌtʃɑːkɑːˈtʊərə /

noun

1. a small grace note melodically adjacent to a principal note and played simultaneously with or immediately before it

2. (in modern music) a very short appoggiatura

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• acciaccaturas
  plural
• acciaccature
  plural

Etymology

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 -ate ¹, -ure)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

acciaccatura acciaccaturas

I'm learning the guitar and I wanted to know what acciaccatura* meant.

From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2016

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

From Style in Singing by Haslam, W. E.

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

From Music Notation and Terminology by Gehrkens, Karl Wilson

“There’s a superabundance of appoggiaturas and acciaccaturas and phrase marks and so forth,” Sacks says, “which together compose a sort of nonsense.”

From Scientific American ● Apr. 22, 2013