adagio

American  

[uh-dah-joh, -zhee-oh, ah-dah-jaw] / əˈdɑ dʒoʊ, -ʒiˌoʊ, ɑˈdɑ dʒɔ /

adverb

1. Music. in a leisurely manner; slowly.

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adjective

1. Music. slow.

noun

adagios plural

1. Music. an adagio movement or piece.

2. Dance.

   1. a sequence of well-controlled, graceful movements performed as a display of skill.

   2. a duet by a man and a woman or mixed trio emphasizing difficult technical feats.

   3. (especially in ballet) a love-duet sequence in a pas de deux.

adagio British  

/ əˈdɑːdʒɪˌəʊ, aˈdadʒo /

adjective

1. (to be performed) slowly

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noun

1. a movement or piece to be performed slowly

2. ballet a slow section of a pas de deux

adagio Cultural  

1. A very slow musical tempo.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• adagios
  plural

Etymology

Origin of adagio

1740–50; < Italian, for ad agio at ease; agio < Old Provençal ais or Old French aise ( see ease)

Explanation

In music, the term adagio means played slowly. If a symphony has an adagio movement, it's a section that's played at a slow tempo. Adagio can be an instruction on a piece of sheet music, directing the musician to play slowly, or it can be a description of a musical interlude. Sometimes a composition has the word adagio in its title, like Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings." The origin of adagio is the Italian phrase ad agio, in which ad means "at" or "to," and agio means "leisure."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

adagio adagios

Whatever happens in this trial, it will happen at a pace that makes an adagio tempo feel like an all-out sprint.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2023

“I have long been thinking of abandoning these nonsensical terms allegro, andante, adagio, presto,” Beethoven wrote in an 1817 letter to Hofrat von Mosel, “and Mälzel’s metronome gives us the best opportunity to do so.”

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 21, 2023

But Drucker and Watkins sustained marvelous tension in the opening adagio movement, highlighting harmonic shifts toward the end that signal the waking romanticism in Beethoven’s later years.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2022

So, with respect and plucky daring, Labadie fashioned a concerto from three Bach movements that feature a solo violin: two sinfonias sandwiching an adagio from the “Easter Oratorio.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 20, 2021

Compare: Does the Music Therapy selection on the Mood/Relaxed channel on Spotify create the same physical reaction as any of the classical adagio selections suggested above?

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

Hart, who provided the haunting adagios for that 2017 film and has been working with Lowery since 2005, was born to tackle the enchanted world of Sir Gawain.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2021

What’s mockable, in the end, is less the slow motion or the string-heavy adagios than the tendency to veer from eloquent to vainglorious and back again.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 27, 2019

But the words she wrote are a symphony, an ode to the joy of wilderness, adagios and allegros and leitmotifs that sing out from the page.

From Scientific American ● May 2, 2013

And in the several adagios in Act II her idea of Romantic style leads her to concentrate on slowly unfolding various arm movements without actually bringing them to a conclusion.

From New York Times ● May 29, 2011

It is self-love which gives us those flat, empty adagios, those cold, keen runs and embellishments.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 49, November, 1861 by Various