crescendo
Americannoun
-
crescendos,
plural
-
crescendi
plural
-
Music.
-
a gradual, steady increase in loudness or force.
-
a musical passage characterized by such an increase.
-
the performance of a crescendo passage.
The crescendo by the violins is too abrupt.
- Antonyms:
- diminuendo
-
-
a steady increase in force or intensity.
The rain fell in a crescendo on the rooftops.
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the climactic point or moment in such an increase; peak.
The authorities finally took action when public outrage reached a crescendo.
adjective
verb (used without object)
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crescendoes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
crescendoed,
past participle, past
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crescendoing
present participle
noun
-
music
-
cresc. a gradual increase in loudness or the musical direction or symbol indicating this
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( as modifier )
a crescendo passage
-
-
a gradual increase in loudness or intensity
the rising crescendo of a song
-
a peak of noise or intensity
the cheers reached a crescendo
verb
adverb
Discover More
The term is sometimes used figuratively to indicate rising intensity in general: “As the days went on, there was a crescendo of angry letters about my speech.” Crescendo is also sometimes misused to indicate a peak of intensity, as in, “The angry letters about my speech hit a crescendo on Wednesday.”
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
crescendosimple
-
crescendoessimple
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have crescendoedperfect
-
has crescendoedperfect
-
am crescendoingprogressive
-
are crescendoingprogressive
-
is crescendoingprogressive
-
have been crescendoingperfect progressive
-
has been crescendoingperfect progressive
Past
-
crescendoedsimple
-
had crescendoedperfect
-
was crescendoingprogressive
-
were crescendoingprogressive
-
had been crescendoingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of crescendo
1770–80; < Italian: literally, growing < Latin crēscendum, gerund of crēscere to grow; see crescent
Explanation
In a crescendo, the music is getting louder. There's often a crescendo in a large group of talking people, too. This word comes from classical music, where it's very important how loudly the instruments play. If a tuba is crescendoing at the wrong time, then a quiet piano part might not be heard at all. The crescendo is important in all kinds of music, because volume — how loud something is — is one of the main features of music. If you are whispering and gradually raise your voice and then end up shouting, that's a crescendo as well.
Vocabulary lists containing crescendo
"Bonne Annee," Vocabulary from the personal essay
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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"The First Day of School," Vocabulary from the short story
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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.
See Examples For:
Lindzon, also a partner at venture-capital investor Social Leverage, noted at the time a crescendo in the chatter about AI chips, he told MarketWatch in an interview on Monday.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
The grande finale of the fireworks show was marked by a massive flurry of blasts - reaching a much anticipated crescendo.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
Yet Daniel Pemberton’s opening theme music is a rousing crescendo of stadium rock synthesizers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
When the Luce was first announced in 2021, enthusiasm around EVs was reaching a crescendo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
Then Amaroq slid into a musical crescendo that Silver joined in.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
“No other tenor did that. And just multiply that a thousand times. It’s crescendi, the decrescendi, all the lovely musical things. He’s just sharp that way, probably the best.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 24, 2018
As to the poets who made it into Dear World, there are predictable highs, plateaux and crescendi.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 12, 2013
The suggestion of orchestral relationships is contained in the massiveness of the harmonic texture, and in the cumulative effect of the climaxes and crescendi.
From Edward MacDowell by Gilman, Lawrence
This did not prevent Rossini from continuing to write crescendi, nor from being satirised and caricatured as "Signor Crescendo," when, some ten years afterwards, he went to Paris.
From The Great Musicians: Rossini and His School by Edwards, Henry Sutherland
Thus, in the coloratura passages of Mozart's arias, I have always sought to gain expressiveness by crescendi, choice of significant points for breathing, and breaking off of phrases.
From How to Sing [Meine Gesangskunst] by Aldrich, Richard
The song blends delicate piano with impressive vocal crescendos, which Goodrem -- a songwriter, musician, film star and a coach on The Voice Australia -- has brought to perfection.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
As I approach the O’Hare exit on I-294, Dr. Becky says, “More than anything, your kid needs you to become a sturdy pilot during their emotional turbulence,” and everything both crescendos and collapses.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
In previous films “The Big Sick” and “Spoiler Alert,” the writer-director managed to tee up more than a few last-minute emotional crescendos.
From Salon ● Dec. 3, 2025
Over tattered drum and bass patterns, retro-futuristic crescendos and ephemeral melodies, Twigs attempts to bottle the way dance music makes her feel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2025
She flashes me a smile, and the world spins—chairs stretch into colorful putty, laughter crescendos in peaks, and the floor beneath my feet wobbles like the land is melting out from under me.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Zardoya’s yearning for a love lost crescendoes, and is most devastating, in the piano ballad “Back to You”; but it seems as though even her darkest, most melancholic moments are touched by the fae.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2025
With its bright, liquid beats, through its chest-jouncing bass line, “Party/After Party” crescendoes into a staggering amalgamation of popular revelry and high art, and a vindication of Black electronic music’s inheritances and influence.
From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2020
I have heard performances in which this third part of the song just descends into complete anarchy: weird warping crescendoes, cymbal crashes; atonal static from Mars, lizard music.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2015
As the crew struggles to replace it, the storm crescendoes, plucking 's anchor from the seabed twice before it can be secured again.
From Nature ● Sep. 4, 2013
And instant by instant the flood of varicolored flame that poured into its petalings down from the sapphire ovoids waxed and waned in crescendoes and diminuendoes of relucent harmonies—ecstatic, awesome.
From The Metal Monster by Merritt, Abraham
As the “to life” chorus crescendoed, a spontaneous hora began.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2026
In the second, a siren crescendoed into a blaring signal whistle to herald the piano’s violent re-entry — a satisfying climax built from unusual means.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
The roars crescendoed when Gauff was introduced before play began.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 5, 2023
As NRP donations increased in the U.S., debate emerged in spurts and crescendoed this spring.
From Science Magazine ● May 11, 2023
As the song crescendoed, a row of daisies poked up from the dirt and unfurled toward her hands.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
As someone who works in food, I see two main reasons behind all this crescendoing pressure.
From Salon ● Dec. 2, 2025
Vampire is just as good, masquerading as a piano ballad before Rodrigo unleashes on the titular blood-sucker with a series of venomous put-downs and crescendoing high notes.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2023
A crescendoing jazz score from Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire invokes Miles Davis’ music for “Elevator to the Gallows.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2023
She married Michael Jackson, just as concerns about his behavior with children were crescendoing, and his efforts to remake his face were intensifying.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2023
I miss her laugh, the way it starts like a pianists solo, soft and low and then crescendoing and filling the room.
From "Betty Before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
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.
