castrato

American  

[ka-strah-toh, kuh-, kah-strah-taw] / kæˈstrɑ toʊ, kə-, kɑˈstrɑ tɔ /

noun

• castrati
  plural

1. a male singer, especially in the 18th century, castrated before puberty to prevent his soprano or contralto voice range from changing.

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castrato British  

/ kæˈstrɑːtəʊ /

noun

1. (in 17th- and 18th-century opera) a male singer whose testicles were removed before puberty, allowing the retention of a soprano or alto voice

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• castrati
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of castrato

1755–65; < Italian < Latin castrāt ( us ); see castrate

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

castrato castrati

Moreschi was not considered a great castrato, and his sound was not at all feminine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Arianna takes a wife for the new emperor, which tracks musically since Handel wrote Anastasio for a castrato voice that well suits a women.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2022

There are macho castrato roles — Handel’s Giulio Cesare or Teseo — but I don’t like them that much.

From New York Times ● May 27, 2022

It was only 100 years ago that the last castrato retired, after 30 years of service in the choir.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 29, 2016

The castrato whom they did engage was Carestini, who, though less celebrated, was at any rate a singularly artistic singer.

From Handel by Edward J. Dent

Only one of the castrati lived to record: Allesandro Moreschi, who sang with a plaintive, eerily haunting bleat, on discs made in the Sistine Chapel between 1902 and 1904.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

It will be adapted from Anne Rice's 1982 novel, which is set in the 18th Century world of the "castrati" - male singing stars who were castrated to preserve their high voices.

From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2025

In their heyday, Handel’s operas almost always involved castrati, singers who were castrated as boys to preserve their higher voices but still gained the full lung capacity and overall stamina of grown men.

From New York Times ● Jun. 4, 2024

But you left out my favorite: “He breaks into castrati shrieks and yelps like a throttled bird clamped to the P.A.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2023

In Handel’s London, the vogue for adult soloist castrati was short-lived, and Italian-style opera itself soon came up against stiff competition in the shape of what we would today call jukebox musicals.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

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