diminuendo

American  

[dih-min-yoo-en-doh] / dɪˌmɪn juˈɛn doʊ /

adjective

1. gradually reducing in force or loudness; decrescendo (opposed to crescendo).

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noun

diminuendoes plural

1. a gradual reduction of force or loudness.

2. a diminuendo passage. >

diminuendo British  

/ dɪˌmɪnjʊˈɛndəʊ /

noun

1. 1.  dim.  a gradual decrease in loudness or the musical direction indicating this

   2. a musical passage affected by a diminuendo

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adjective

1. gradually decreasing in loudness

2. with a diminuendo

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• diminuendoes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of diminuendo

1765–75; < Italian, present participle of diminuire; see diminish

Explanation

In music, diminuendo means gradually growing more quiet. When the sheet music calls for a diminuendo, that's definitely not the time to blow your trumpet as hard as you can. As they play, musicians don't simply follow the notes; musical notation includes a lot of additional information, including how fast to play, whether to be loud or quiet, and when to increase or decrease the volume. Diminuendo, which comes from the Latin root deminuere, or "diminish," instructs a pianist or cellist to quiet their playing, transitioning to a more gentle sound.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

diminuendo diminuendoes

Just as the emotional transformation reaches its climax, the music startles with a shimmering, introspective diminuendo that drifts down from the heavens, a passage Ms. Netrebko navigates with trembling and bewitched delicacy.

From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2018

Seems to me that that last exchange between Paige and Elizabeth wasn't just a random diminuendo.

From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2017

In Mitchell’s case, the diminuendo was especially long, and his continued expectations for himself much higher.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 20, 2015

As each wave rolls in—booming, roaring, growling, hissing—I listen to its voice: the unique contours of its rising and falling, its singular crescendo and diminuendo.

From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2015

She heard the crash repeated in diminuendo farther down in the canyon.

From Sawtooth Ranch by Bower, B. M.

Rifle-fire is as inconstant in volume as piano music; there is something of human effort to be heard in the "tap ... tap ... tap ... tap-tap-trrrrapp" of its crescendos and diminuendoes.

From "Contemptible", by "Casualty" by

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

His delivery, with its sentimental diminuendoes and coquettish staccatoes, was reminiscent of the music-hall style, on which it was doubtless modelled.

From The Undying Past by Sudermann, Hermann

Not only so, but the accompanying orchestra faithfully upheld and completed the symphony which rose and fell with crescendos and diminuendoes more glorious as the chorus pealed louder and nearer.

From The Trail of a Sourdough Life in Alaska by Sullivan, May Kellogg

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 Symons, Arthur