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.
-
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
-
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
-
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:
Paramount’s high-profile lobbying campaign reached a crescendo in late August after Paramount called out activist-actor Mark Ruffalo, accusing him of resorting to “antisemitic tropes” to argue against the merger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
The recent crescendo of critiques of health messaging is not unfounded.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2026
His executor disagreed, arguing that Anderson’s official home was a mansion in Vero Beach, Fla. The decadelong legal battle is just now reaching a crescendo, Ashlea Ebeling reports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
You read that right: Despite a chorus of criticism over the last few years, which in recent weeks has reached a crescendo, the 60/40 portfolio is more than holding its own this year.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
There’s a crescendo in the ticking, and a flash.
From "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" by J.K. Rowling
The score, by Raül Refree, feels like an avalanche of crescendi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
“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 Lawrence Gilman
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 Henry Sutherland Edwards
Born from Wolf’s real frustrations in a long-term relationship, the melodramatic hit bubbles with acoustic guitar and low, vocal flip-laced mourning to amplified crescendos, replete with punchy garage-rock drumming and Wolf’s howling chorus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
At least until Hans Zimmer’s music hits one of its glorious crescendos, at which point the cat will leap off the couch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
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
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
As Bannon walks through dilapidated neighborhoods in slo-mo, the cyclical music crescendoes, and “American Dharma” develops a searing, operatic tone complimented by the recurring image of a burning flag.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2018
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
He makes them dance for his pleasure, and you hear their breath come and go, in the swell and subsiding of those marvellous crescendoes and diminuendoes which set the strings pulsating like a sea.
From Plays, Acting and Music A Book Of Theory by Arthur Symons
It crescendoed in the seventh, when the Dodgers stormed all the way back from what had been a four-run deficit, only to watch a temporary one-run lead fail to last.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2025
As “Turn the Lights Back On” crescendoed, the crowd sang along earnestly.
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2024
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
Katherine had always been driven by curiosity, and as the activity in and around Building 1244 crescendoed, it consumed her.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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
A single like Biology opens with a Chicago blues riff that morphs into a crescendoing succession of Euro-trance verses, followed by a stomping cheerleader chorus, before somehow reverting back to the original blues riff.
From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2023
Musgraves started her set boldly, with the sweeping Spanish guitar of the album’s title track crescendoing as a giant metal heart ignited in flames behind her.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 4, 2022
With power rock chords, crescendoing piano, and operatic heights, "Bat Out of Hell" wasn't like anything anyone had heard before.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2022
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
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