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• alto
  alto

  noun

  the lowest female voice; contralto.
• alto-
  alto-

  variant of alti-.

alto

¹ American  

[al-toh] / ˈæl toʊ /

noun

• altos
  plural

1. the lowest female voice; contralto.

2. the highest male voice; countertenor.

3. a singer with such a voice.

4. a musical part for such a voice.

5. the second highest of the four parts of a mixed vocal chorus, or the voices or persons singing this part.

6. the second highest instrument in a family of musical instruments, as the viola in the violin family or the althorn in the cornet family.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or having the tonal range of the alto.

2. (of a musical instrument) second highest in a family of musical instruments.

   alto saxophone.

alto- ² American  

1. variant of alti-.

   altostratus.

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alto ¹ British  

/ ˈæltəʊ /

noun

1. the highest adult male voice; countertenor

2. (in choral singing) a shortened form of contralto

3. a singer with such a voice

4. another name for viola 1

5. a flute, saxophone, etc, that is the third or fourth highest instrument in its group

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adjective

1. denoting a flute, saxophone, etc, that is the third or fourth highest instrument in its group

alto- ² British  

combining form

1. high

   altocumulus

   altostratus

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alto Cultural  

1. The lowest range of the female singing voice, also called contralto. (Compare mezzo soprano and soprano.)

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• altos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of alto

1775–85; < Italian < Latin altus high

Explanation

An alto is a woman with a relatively low singing voice. In a choir, alto describes the lowest singing part written for a female voice. While occasionally men are described as altos — in which case, the word describes a fairly high pitched singing voice — it more often describes a woman whose voice is lower than a soprano. The word alto can also refer to other instruments, including saxophones and flutes, at specific pitches. Alto originally described a man's high voice, from a Latin root, altus, or "high."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

alto alto- altos

Mr. Threadgill, who plays alto saxophone and flute and is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, first assembled this band 25 years ago to further a compositional strategy that is singular and yet invites improvised collaboration.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

On that last track, recorded a dozen years ago, Mr. Lloyd, playing alto sax, seems like a fountain, distilling fragments of songs and scales into a narrative that spills forth in graceful gushes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

They’ve championed the resurgence of norteño-sax, a subgenre that fuses the accordion sounds of norteño music with an invigorating alto saxophone, made popular by legendary groups like Conjunto Primavera.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

Hearing Hawkins’s recording of “Body and Soul” as a fourth-grader had been a turning point for Rollins musically and eventually lead him to switch from alto to tenor saxophone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026

It was my habit to keep working past everyone else, but someone would say to me, "Jorge, basta alto!"

From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson

I wish he would find other words or eliminate the thought alto- gether.

From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau

When the world was comparatively new, it required alto- gether more tinkering and fixing than at present.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 5 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Discussions by Robert Green Ingersoll

The poem is alto- gether above the standard of school-prizes.

From Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Now First Published by Robert Seymour Bridges

I have lost in the race for money and good things, and I am not such a fool as to pretend to 'ee now I am poor, and you have got alto- gether above me.

From Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

"But if you notice, they are all from melodic lines and they move in intervals that can be taken by sopranos, altos, tenors and basses, and this is not possible to do like that."

From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2021

Like other community choirs, we have way more sopranos and altos than tenors and basses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2021

“Pattern-mixing is a chorus, and you need altos, sopranos, tenors and a bass line,” Luckett says.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 11, 2021

For this year’s service, he rewrote bass and tenor parts for altos and sopranos so it would work with the choristers who agreed to sing.

From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2020

There were girls with squeaky voices or soft altos, plump girls and thin ones, babyish girls who wore heart lockets and girls who were old before their time and worked as secretaries in insurance firms.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides