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
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a member of any of various families of musical instruments that is lower in pitch than the bass
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another name for double bass
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived 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.
Smerilli performed most of the instruments himself, including the inky depths of a contrabass clarinet, which he purchased and learned just for this score.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 20, 2024
Chase makes virtuosically parched, percussive exhalations; she can be sheerly sweet on the standard flute and has, on the enormous contrabass flute, the milky penetration of a whale’s deep-sea call.
From New York Times • Mar. 30, 2023
Musician Carmelo Leotta played an improvisational piece on a contrabass at the Gleis 17 memorial in Berlin.
From BBC • Jan. 27, 2023
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
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.
