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contralto

[kuh n-tral-toh]Music.

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR contralto ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural con·tral·tos.

the lowest female voice or voice part, intermediate between soprano and tenor.

the alto, or highest male voice or voice part.

a singer with a contralto voice.

adjective

pertaining to the contralto voice or its compass.

Origin of contralto

1720–30; < Italian, equivalent to contr(a) contra-² + alto alto

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for contralto

low, deep, low-pitched

Examples from the Web for contralto

Historical Examples of contralto

It was a contralto voice, of a quality that made his pulses leap.
The Destroyer
Burton Egbert Stevenson
That is not an instrument for the production of tones in the contralto compass.
The Child-Voice in Singing
Francis E. Howard
It is for two voices, a soprano and contralto, and is excellently written.
A Popular History of the Art of Music
W. S. B. Mathews
The second man might be an artificial soprano or a contralto.
A Popular History of the Art of Music
W. S. B. Mathews
It is a contralto that can express profound depths of feeling.
The Girls at Mount Morris
Amanda Minnie Douglas

British Dictionary definitions for contralto

contralto

noun plural -tos or -ti (-tɪ)

the lowest female voice, usually having a range of approximately from F a fifth below middle C to D a ninth above itIn the context of a choir often shortened to: alto

a singer with such a voice

adjective

of or denoting a contraltothe contralto part

Word Origin for contralto

C18: from Italian; see contra-, alto

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

Word Origin and History for contralto

n.

"lowest female voice," 1730, from Italian contralto; see contra- "against, opposite" + alto. The part next above the alto.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

contralto in Culture

contralto

[(kuhn-tral-toh)]

The lowest range of the female singing voice; alto.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.