contrabass
Americannoun
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(in any family of instruments) the member below the bass.
-
(in the violin family) the double bass.
adjective
noun
-
a member of any of various families of musical instruments that is lower in pitch than the bass
-
another name for double bass
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of contrabass
From Italian, dating back to 1590–1600; see origin at contrabasso
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was a deep, rolling, glorious contrabass; once described as the sound that "Moses heard when addressed by God."
From BBC • Sep. 9, 2024
Rozenfeld, whose bald-shaved head was covered with a flat cap, moved to the rhythm while playing the contrabass.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 1, 2022
Terror turns to mere sadness as a muted ensemble of bassoon and three contrabass clarinets — a feature of Eastman’s idiosyncratic, extravagant orchestration — offers a stunned postlude.
From New York Times • Feb. 4, 2022
I’m going to program my left hand as the accompanying strings, plus brass, tuba, and contrabass.
From Slate • Apr. 20, 2020
Contra — Means lower: for example a contrabassoon sounds lower than a regular bassoon43 , and a contrabass clarinet is even lower than a bass clarinet.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
