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cadenza

American  
[kuh-den-zuh] / kəˈdɛn zə /

noun

Music.

  1. an elaborate flourish or showy solo passage, sometimes improvised, introduced near the end of an aria or a movement of a concerto.

cadenza British  
/ kəˈdɛnzə /

noun

  1. a virtuoso solo passage occurring near the end of a piece of music, formerly improvised by the soloist but now usually specially composed

  2. informal a fit or convulsion

"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

Etymology

Origin of cadenza

1745–55; < Italian < Vulgar Latin *cadentia a falling, equivalent to Latin cad ( ere ) to fall + -entia -ency; chance

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.